Path analyses indicated that the relationship between conformity to masculine norms (CMN) and attitudes toward mask-wearing to protect from COVID-19 was mediated by perceived benefits, perceived barriers, confidence in the scientific community, and empathy toward vulnerable persons, and that political ideology moderated the indirect effects from CMN to men’s attitudes. Efforts to improve men’s participation in combatting COVID-19 should address the perceptions and attitudes related to conforming to traditional masculine norms and moderated by political ideology, and might reconstruct masculinity to focus on being a guardian and protector of public health.

Objectives We tested whether a sleep and circadian-based treatment shown to improve circadian adaptation to night shifts and attenuate negative effects on alertness, performance, and sleep in young adults would also be effective in older adults. Methods We assessed subjective alertness, sustained attention (psychomotor vigilance task, PVT), sleep duration (actigraphy), and circadian timing (salivary dim-light melatonin onset, DLMO) in eighteen older adults (57.2±3.8 y; mean±SD) in a simulated shift work protocol. Four day shifts were followed by three night shifts in the laboratory. Participants slept at home and were randomized to either the Treatment Group (scheduled evening sleep and enhanced lighting during the latter half of night shifts), or Control Group (ad lib sleep and typical lighting during night shifts). Results Compared to day shifts, alertness and sustained attention declined on the first night shift in both groups, and was worse in the latter half of the night shifts. Alertness and attention improved on nights 2 and 3 for the Treatment Group but remained lower for the Control Group. Sleep duration in the Treatment Group remained similar to baseline (6–7 h) following night shifts, but was shorter (3–5 h) following night shifts in the Control Group. Treatment Group circadian timing advanced by 169.3±16.1 min (mean±SEM) but did not shift (−9.7±9.9 min) in the Control Group. Conclusions The combined treatment of scheduled evening sleep and enhanced lighting increased sleep duration and partially aligned circadian phase with sleep and work timing, resulting in improved night shift alertness and performance.

The study examined men’s conformity to masculine norms as related to adherence to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations for mitigating the spread of COVID-19 as well as men’s attitudes toward mask wearing. Five hundred eighty nine participant men, predominantly White and heterosexual, completed the 10–15 min anonymous online survey through Prolific. After controlling for demographics, results indicated that the masculine norms of emotional control and power over women were related to less adherence to CDC recommendations; and that self-reliance, power over women, and heterosexual self-presentation were related to more negative attitudes toward mask wearing. Limitations and future research such as improving men’s participation in combatting COVID-19, and other public health crises, by addressing men’s specific salient masculine norms when developing and implementing public health outreach and prevention are discussed.

Objective: The present study examined whether sexual minority men's experiences of sexual stigma and conformity to masculine norms predicted their perpetration of physical intimate partner violence (IPV) and whether masculinity norms and sexual orientation moderated those relationships. Method: Two hundred seventy-five gay and bisexual+ (bi+) men completed online questionnaires assessing their physical IPV perpetration in their most significant recent intimate relationship, along with measures of sexual stigma and conformity to the masculine norms of winning and power over women. Results: Findings indicated that enacted stigma (i.e., heterosexist discrimination) was significantly related to physical IPV perpetration, such that higher levels of enacted stigma were associated with higher levels of physical IPV perpetration. Results also indicated that the masculine norm of winning moderated the relation between enacted stigma and IPV perpetration and between felt stigma (i.e., expectations of discrimination) and IPV perpetration. Simple slopes analyses revealed that at low levels of winning, enacted, and felt stigma were not significant predictors of perpetration, but at high levels of winning, they were significant predictors. Sexual orientation also moderated the relationship between power over women and perpetration such that power over women was a significant predictor among bi+ men but not gay men. Conclusions: The results point to the role that sexual stigma and masculinity may play in understanding sexual minority men's physical IPV perpetration and important differences between gay and bi+ men. Preventive interventions for IPV among sexual minority men should consider the impact of heterosexist experiences and felt stigma as well as constructions of masculinity.

Four hundred fifty-nine men from the United States were recruited online and participated in our study examining men's depressive symptoms, health beliefs, health behaviors, and conformity to masculine norms. Path analyses using Hayes' PROCESS model tested the conditional indirect effects among the variables with conformity to the masculine norms of emotional control and self-reliance as moderators. Results indicated that (a) depressive symptoms predicted men perceiving fewer benefits and more barriers to heart-healthy behaviors, (b) depressive symptoms had a direct effect to fewer heart-healthy behaviors, (c) perceived benefits related to reporting more heart-healthy behaviors and mediated the relationship between depressive symptoms and health behaviors, (d) perceived barriers related to fewer heart-healthy behaviors and mediated the relationship between depressive symptoms and health behaviors, (e) conformity to emotional control related to fewer perceived barriers, fewer heart-healthy behaviors, and moderated the relationship between perceived barriers and health behaviors, and (f) conformity to self-reliance was associated with more perceived barriers to heart-healthy behaviors. Efforts to improve men's health should aim to increase men's perceived benefits and to reduce perceived barriers to healthy living associated with depression, identify specific benefits and barriers men experience in adopting healthy behaviors, and anticipate how emotional control exacerbates how men's depressive symptoms interfere with healthy living. Public Significance StatementMen's depression and health risk behaviors co-occur and contribute to negative outcomes from human suffering to economic losses of productivity. The findings from this study suggest that men's depression is associated with health-related beliefs that explain their risky health behaviors and that their conformity to emotional control exacerbates the effect of perceived barriers to healthy living.

An abbreviated version of the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory, the CMNI-30, was developed with several strengths. However, its measurement invariance across men with different sexual orientations has not been examined in a U.S. sample, so it is unclear whether these different populations understand the items similarly. In addition, no studies have compared conformity to masculinity norms across sexual orientations. This would be important to understand sexual minority men’s experience of masculinity and how it differs from heteronormative masculinity. This article explores the measurement invariance of the CMNI-30 among 882 heterosexual, gay, and bisexual+ men using confirmatory factor analysis, and compares their CMNI-30 subscale scores. Results indicated that the CMNI-30 demonstrated residual invariance between men of different sexual orientations, suggesting that men of different sexual orientations interpreted the items similarly. We also found higher levels of conformity to the masculine norms of Winning, Heterosexual self-presentation, and Power over women among heterosexual men relative to gay and bisexual+ men, and higher levels of Pursuit of status among gay men relative to the other groups. Results provide support for the use of the CMNI-30 in research with men of different sexual orientations.

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