Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

12-2007

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph. D.

Department (Legacy)

Department of Leadership, Foundations, and Human Resource Education

Committee Chair

Choi, Namok

Author's Keywords

Gay and lesbian; Self-esteem; Gender roles; Loneliness; Gender role conflict; Mental health; Gay; Lesbian

Subject

Gays--Psychology; Gays--Mental health; Gays--Social conditions

Abstract

This dissertation represented an examination of the interrelationships between psychological gender (i.e., masculinity, femininity, androgyny, and undifferentiated), biological gender (i.e., male and female), gender role conflict, self-esteem, and loneliness in a sample of gay men and lesbian women. Psychological gender and biological gender served as the independent variables in the study while gender role conflict, self-esteem, and loneliness served as the dependent variables. A two-way factorial MANOVA was used as the statistical model of choice in addition to correlational analyses. A confirmatory factor analysis was also completed on the instrument used to measure gender role conflict, the Gender Role Conflict Scale. The dissertation was divided into five chapters. The first chapter simply served as an introduction to the study including the variables, definitions, and research questions. Chapter two introduced the literature relevant to the study. The literature relative to psychological gender was presented in chronological order, followed by a discussion of the literature addressing self-esteem, loneliness, and gender role conflict. Chapter three described the purpose and design of the current study in addition to all research instruments used. Research instruments included the Bem Sex Role Inventory as the measurement instrument of psychological gender. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale were used to measure self-esteem and loneliness, respectively. Finally, the Gender Role Conflict Scale was used to measure levels of gender role conflict. The study results were presented in chapter four. No significant interaction was found between psychological gender and biological gender on gender role conflict, self-esteem, or loneliness. Significant main effects, however, were observed in psychological gender on all dependent variables. In addition, a significant main effect was observed in biological gender on gender role conflict. The results from the confirmatory factor analysis upheld those found in the literature. Although the fit indices used did not reveal a strong fit of the model to the data, the overall fit was moderate. Chapter five served as a discussion chapter. A summary of major findings was presented along with a discussion of the findings.

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