The construct validity of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory for heterosexual and gay men

This study examined the construct validity of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1978) for heterosexual and gay men. Sixty heterosexual and 63 gay male participants were recruited through networking and advertisements. These two groups were of equivalent age, socioeconomic background, race, student status, and educational level. They completed the Lifestyle Questionnaire assessing sexual orientation and the BSRI assessing sex-role orientation. The internal consistency and discriminant validity of the BSRI scales were examined by corrected item-total correlations, coefficient alphas, inter-scale correlations, and factor analysis. Results suggested that the BSRI was equally valid for heterosexual and gay men, and the psychometric data reported in the BSRI Manual (Bem, 1981) were essentially replicated. However, the short-form BSRI is recommended for use with male respondents because of the problematic non-short-form Femininity items.