Agency and expressiveness in middle and older aged Portuguese men and women

Bem's model of gender roles (Bem, 1974, 1981a) proposed that psychological masculinity and femininity are two separate and orthogonal dimensions, and further supported the advantages of a shared masculine and feminine personality in comparison to a gendered personality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) in Portugal, specific to two essential dimensions of gender roles - Agency/Instrumentality and Expressiveness. This study was part of a larger study about perceived health in both middle and older aged men and women. The sample consisted of 630 Portuguese adults (53.3% women), aged between 40 and 86 (M = 51.52, SD = 8.4). To assess construct validity, an Exploratory Factor Analysis was performed, confirming the two-dimensional model of Agency/Instrumentality (9 items) and Expressiveness (9 items), and with a high internal consistency. Afterwards, Confirmatory Factor Analyses were performed, and confirmed the two-dimensional first-order model with 18 items among men and women separately, and in the total sample. Lastly, a Multi-group Confirmatory Factor Analysis was performed, and the invariance between gender groups was confirmed. The current study provided evidence of good psychometric and factorial validity of the 18-item version of BSRI for a middle and older aged Portuguese sample.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Costa,Pedro Alexandre, Mangia,Paula, Tomás,Carolina Correia, Pimenta,Filipa, Maroco,João, Leal,Isabel
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Sociedade Portuguesa de Psicologia da Saúde 2017
Online Access:http://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1645-00862017000300017
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