Keeping control : relations between men's gender role conflict, spirituality and psychological well being

Recent decades have seen an increase in scrutiny of masculinity and what it means to be a man in society. Researchers as well as popular culture have increased their focus on gender roles and how those roles can create internal and interpersonal conflicts in men. In addition, spirituality has become an increasingly salient variable for clinicians and researchers assessing overall psychological well-being. The current study explored the ability of gender role conflict and spiritual attitudes to predict psychological wellbeing among men. Participants were 223 college-aged men whom were either members of Christian organizations or fraternities on the campus of a large public university in the Midwest. Several variables of gender role conflict and spiritual attitudes were significantly related to psychological well-being. Increased gender role conflict combined with maladaptive spiritual attitudes were predictive of lower overall psychological well-being. Limitations and implications for practice and research are discussed.