Sex role orientation and self-esteem: a critical meta-analytic review

Research on the relation between sex role orientation and psychological well-being has been guided by one of three models. The traditional congruence model holds that psychological well-being is fostered only when one's sex role orientation is congruent with one's gender; the androgyny model proposes that well-being is maximized when one's sex role orientation incorporates a high degree of both masculinity and femininity regardless of one's gender; the masculinity model posits that well-being is a function of the extent to which one has a masculine sex role orientation. The adequacy of these three models was tested by means of a meta-analysis of 35 studies of the relation between sex role orientation and self-esteem, the indicator of psychological well-being most widely used in sex role studies. The results of the meta-analysis were most supportive of the masculinity model and showed that the strength of observed relations between sex role orientation and self-esteem varied as a function of both the sex role measure and the type of self-esteem measure used in the studies. In addition, a number of methodological issues was identified that should be taken into consideration in future research.