The inventory of subjective masculinity experiences: development and psychometric properties

The purpose of this article is to describe the development of the Inventory of Subjective Masculinity Experiences (ISME) and to provide preliminary evidence for the psychometric properties of this scale. Subjective masculinity experiences are defined as men's subjective experiences of what it means to be a man (e.g., As a man, I need to be strong). Participants (220 men) completed the sentence, 'As a man ...' 10 times. Participants' open-ended responses were coded according to 23 dimensions of subjective masculinity experiences. Five of the twenty-three ISME dimensions included responses that comprised at least 5 percent of all participant responses: Family, Responsibility, Emotional Toughness, Work, and Physical Body. Preliminary evidence for the convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity of these dimensions was provided. The ISME-Family and ISME-Responsibility were negatively associated with psychological distress, whereas the ISME-Work was positively related to psychological distress. The ISME-Emotional Toughness was negatively related to life satisfaction. The use of the ISME in clinical and research settings is discussed. Keywords: scale development, masculinity, subjective gender experiences, social constructionism
Gender has been described as 'one of the central organizing principles around which social life revolves' (Kimmel, 2000, p. 5). From an early age, men learn to view their lives [...]