There is consensus that military personnel can encounter a far more diverse set of challenges than researchers and clinicians have historically appreciated. Moral injury (MI) represents an emerging construct to capture behavioural, social, and spiritual suffering that may transcend and overlap with mental health diagnoses (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder). The Expressions of Moral Injury Scale-Military Version (EMIS-M) was developed to provide a reliable and valid means for assessing the warning signs of a MI in military populations. Drawing on independent samples of veterans who had served in a war-zone environment, factor analytic results revealed 2 distinct factors related to MI expressions directed at both self (9 items) and others (8 items). These subscales generated excellent internal consistency and temporal stability over a 6-month period. When compared to measures of post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder, and other theoretically relevant constructs (e.g., forgiveness, social support, moral emotions, and combat exposure), EMIS-M scores demonstrated strong convergent, divergent, and incremental validity. In addition, although structural equation modelling findings supported a possible general MI factor in Study 2, the patterns of associations for self- and other-directed expressions yielded evidence for differential validity with varying forms of forgiveness and combat exposure. As such, the EMIS-M provides a face valid, psychometrically validated tool for assessing expressions of apparent MI subtypes in research and clinical settings. Looking ahead, the EMIS-M will hopefully advance the scientific understanding of MI while supporting innovation for clinicians to tailor evidence-based treatments and/or develop novel approaches for addressing MI in their work.

This study examined self‐stigma of seeking psychological help and mental health literacy as predictors of college students’ (N = 1,535) help‐seeking attitudes, with additional attention to psychological and demographic correlates. Results indicated that mental health literacy predicted help‐seeking attitudes above and beyond self‐stigma. Asian American race/ethnicity, male gender, current psychological distress, and help‐seeking history were also significant predictors. Implications for addressing mental health literacy and self‐stigma while attending to demographic and psychological variations in help seeking are discussed.

Empirical findings indicate that sexual and gender minorities report notably poorer outcomes on measures of mental health when compared with cisgender/heterosexual individuals. Although several studies have examined these issues, few have taken the time to examine differences between cisgender/ heterosexual and specific lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer identities. This is especially important as an increasing number of new gender and sexual identities emerge, yet limitations in statistical power often preclude such analyses. Thus, the following study addressed this gap by examining data from a large sample of college students from the national Health Minds Study (n ϭ 43,632). Results indicated that college students with transgender and gender nonconforming identities reported significantly higher rates of depression and anxiety symptoms compared with students with cisgender identities, with large effect sizes. Disparities were also significant across sexual minority participants, with the smallest effect sizes being between heterosexual and gay/lesbian individuals, and the largest effect sizes between heterosexual and pansexual participants for depression, and heterosexual and demisexual participants for anxiety. We also found evidence of an interaction of gender and sexual identity impacting mental health such that those with minority statuses in both identity groups had significantly worse outcomes compared to those with only one minority identity. Our results indicate that individuals in the emerging sexual and gender minority categories (pansexual, demisexual, asexual, queer, questioning, and transgender/gender nonconforming) report significantly higher rates of depression and anxiety when compared with cisgender/heterosexual individuals, and even significantly more than those who identify as gay/lesbian. Implications for mental health providers and researchers are discussed. Public Significance StatementResults indicate that participants identifying as an emerging identity (pansexual, demisexual, and gender nonconforming) report the highest levels of anxiety and depression. Those who identified as both a gender and sexual minority had higher anxiety and depression rates compared with those who had a minority status in only one group.

The Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (CMNI) has been an important tool in researching masculinity. With the original measure at 94 items (Mahalik et al., 2003), there have been several abbreviated forms developed from 11 to 55 items. However, in confirmatory factor analyses (CFA's) testing 13 common factors, bifactor, hierarchical, and unidimensional models, only 4 models demonstrated adequate fit to the data, and most of these were for the still quite long 46-item version. As a result, there was no psychometrically strong truly short form of the CMNI. In the present study, data from 1561 community and university men were used to develop a short form. First an exploratory factor analysis using a portion of the data was conducted, which resulted in a 10-subscale dimensionality, followed by CFA estimating a common factors model. The results of the CFA were used to create two candidate models for a 30-item short form of the CMNI, based on Classical test theory (CTT) and optimized CTT. The best-fitting candidate model for the CMNI-30 was CTT. Next, the fit of the 29, 46, and 94 item models were compared to the 30-item version, which had the superior fit. Then, measurement invariance between White men and men of color was assessed, choosing this comparison because hegemonic masculinity is theorized to marginalize men of color. Evidence was found for full configural and metric, and partial scalar and residuals invariance. Finally, significant relationships between CMNI-30 scores and indicators of depression and anxiety provides preliminary concurrent evidence for its validity.

'Further examination of the factor structure of the Male Role Norms Inventory-Short Form (MRNI-SF) : measurement considerations for women, men of color, and gay men.', Journal of counseling psychology., 64 (6).pp. 724-738. Further information on publisher's website:https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000225Publisher's copyright statement:c 2017 APA, all rights reserved. This article may not exactly replicate the nal version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. given the insufficient model-based reliability of their raw subscale scores. When comparing men to women, White men to Black and Asian men, and gay men to heterosexual men, the MRNI-SF demonstrated configural invariance and at least partial metric invariance (i.e., measured similar constructs). However, scalar and residuals invariance were only supported for Asian men compared to White men. Taken together, these findings suggest that a general TMI factor of the MRNI-SF is best represented by a bifactor model, even in individuals that do not fit the White heterosexual male TMI reference group, but the instrument may be tapping somewhat different constructs in women, Black men, and gay men. Public Significance Statement:The Male Role Norms Inventory Short-Form is a popular and widely used measure of traditional masculinity ideology (TMI). Recent research suggests it is best measured through a structural equation modeling approach, but this may not be practical for most psychologists, particularly clinicians. The present findings provide important guidelines for the use and interpretation of the instrument's raw scores, as well as considerations for measuring TMI in women, men of color, and gay men.

Measures of traditional masculinity ideology (TMI) provide important information related to men's well-being. However, most TMI measures are too long to be included in large public health, psychological, or medical survey batteries. Drawing on previous bifactor analyses of the Male Role Norms Inventory-Short Form (MRNI-SF), structural equation modeling (SEM) identified five items with variance primarily explained by a TMI general factor. These items formed the Male Role Norms Inventory-Very Brief (MRNI-VB), a unidimensional measure of the same TMI general factor captured by the MRNI-SF bifactor model. Several analyses were completed determining that the MRNI-VB performed as well as the original MRNI-SF. First, the unidimensional MRNI-VB evidenced equivalent fit to the bifactor MRNI-SF model in an archival sample of college and community men and women (n ϭ 6,744). Second, the MRNI-VB yielded statistically similar standardized beta coefficients to the MRNI-SF TMI general factor across 32 out of 38 regressions predicting variables within and outside of the MRNI nomological network in published (n ϭ 484) and unpublished (n ϭ 1,537) MRNI-SF research of college and community men. Third, in an unpublished sample of undergraduates who filled out the MRNI-VB instead of the entire MRNI-SF (n ϭ 365), the MRNI-VB yielded good model fit, good internal consistency reliability, and demonstrated a similar pattern of measurement invariance between men and women as the MRNI-SF. Overall, findings suggest that the MRNI-VB captures the same general TMI factor as the MRNI-SF but with a fraction of the items. Future directions, limitations, and implications are discussed.

For several decades, investigators have attempted to identify factors that explain why some men perpetrate sexual assault in college. However, despite a strong emphasis on men as the perpetrators of sexual assault, current reviews have yet to analyze different masculinities in relation to sexual assault offending. In the present narrative review, we critically examined college sexual assault research published between 1950 and 2015 and identified 3 distinct approaches to examining masculinities: sex comparisons, men’s attitudes toward women and violence, and constructs informed by the normative and gender role strain paradigms of the psychology of men. Findings revealed that (a) studies of sexual assault perpetration focusing on men and masculinities are relatively rare in the extant literature; (b) sex differences in perpetration rates are complex; (c) men’s attitudes toward women and violence are strong predictors of sexual assault perpetration, and also the most common approach to studying masculinities in relation to sexual assault offending, but they may be limited in their definition; and (d) research examining men’s sexual assault perpetration using constructs central to the psychology of men is generally underdeveloped and underrepresented. Future directions for research are discussed, including a need for more investigations focusing on ethnic and sexual orientation diversity, broader definitions of masculinity, and more inquiry using normative and gender role strain constructs.

War zone veterans who experience posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms might struggle with co‐occurring cognitive, emotional, and behavioral expressions of suffering that align with conceptual definitions of moral injury (MI). However, given that PTSD is a multidimensional condition, disentangling the apparent interplay with MI may inform clinical practice and research. This study incorporated a cross‐lagged design to explore temporal associations between self‐ and other‐directed outcomes related to MI and severity of DSM‐5 PTSD symptom clusters while accounting for depressive symptoms. Drawing on the Expressions of Moral Injury Scale–Military Version in a community sample of 182 previously deployed veterans, MI‐related outcomes were linked with severity of PTSD symptom clusters at two assessments spaced apart by 6 months, rs = .58–.62. Of possible models for conceptualizing the temporal nature of these associations, structural equation modeling analyses revealed a cross‐lagged primary MI model best fit veterans’ responses. Within this model, veterans’ self‐directed MI at Time 1 predicted greater PTSD symptoms at the 6‐month follow‐up. However, an equivalent cross‐lagged path also emerged between Time 1 PTSD Cluster D symptoms and self‐directed MI at Time 2, suggesting the value of a reciprocal MI model for this symptom domain. In contrast, other‐directed outcomes of MI were not linked with PTSD in the presence of other variables. Overall, these findings support the prognostic value of assessing for MI‐related outcomes among veterans who might be struggling with PTSD symptomatology, particularly with respect to self‐directed problems associated with enduring moral distress.