Relational Health and Masculine Gender-Role Conflict in the Friendships and Community Relationships of Bisexual,Gay, and Straight Men |
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Authors: | Desi Alonzo Vásquez Jody L Newman Lisa L Frey Todd J Caze Andrew N Friedman William D Meek |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA;2. Department of Educational Psychology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA;3. Department of Psychology, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA;4. Department of Counseling and Testing Services, Washington State University, Vancouver, Washington, USA |
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Abstract: | This study examined how men's masculine gender-role conflict and the importance men placed on interpersonal relationships in defining their self-identities predicted their relational health experiences in same-sex, dyadic friendships and community relationships. Using an Internet sample of 283 self-identified bisexual, gay, and straight men, results of hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated that for men across sexual orientations, the more importance men placed on interpersonal relationships with other men, the greater the degree of relational health they experienced in dyadic friendships. Additionally, for bisexual and gay men in dyadic friendships with other men, gender-role conflict was inversely related to the relational health of their friendships. In the domain of community relationships, the importance that bisexual and straight men placed on interpersonal relationships in defining their self-identities and levels of gender-role conflict predicted relational health experiences. For gay men, however, feelings of masculine gender-role conflict, alone, predicted poorer relational health in community relationships. Study limitations, clinical implications for practice, and future research directions are discussed. |
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Keywords: | bisexual men community friendship gay men gender-role conflict relational health relational interdependent self-construal straight men |
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