In 2010, Psychology of Men & Masculinity (PMM) celebrates the 10th anniversary of its inception as the official journal of the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity. This article commemorates this significant milestone by examining the journal's current trends and future directions through a content analysis of 154 articles published in PMM from 2000 to 2008. We found that PMM scholarship was dominated by theories associated with the gender role strain paradigm, addressed clinically related topics, relied largely on White male college samples, and had a growing impact on clinically focused scholarly journals and books. Recommendations for addressing theoretical orientations, topics, and populations underrepresented in PMM scholarship are provided.

The purpose of this article is to describe the development of the Inventory of Subjective Masculinity Experiences (ISME) and to provide preliminary evidence for the psychometric properties of this scale. Subjective masculinity experiences are defined as men's subjective experiences of what it means to be a man (e.g., As a man, I need to be strong). Participants (220 men) completed the sentence, “As a man…” 10 times. Participants' open-ended responses were coded according to 23 dimensions of subjective masculinity experiences. Five of the twenty-three ISME dimensions included responses that comprised at least 5 percent of all participant responses: Family, Responsibility, Emotional Toughness, Work, and Physical Body. Preliminary evidence for the convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity of these dimensions was provided. The ISME-Family and ISME-Responsibility were negatively associated with psychological distress, whereas the ISME-Work was positively related to psychological distress. The ISME-Emotional Toughness was negatively related to life satisfaction. The use of the ISME in clinical and research settings is discussed.

This article describes the development and psychometric properties of the Subjective Masculinity Stress Scale (SMSS), which assesses the stress associated with men's subjective experiences of what it means to be male. Two hundred twenty men from the United States completed the sentence, “As a man…” 10 times, after which they indicated the frequency with which each of the 10 experiences was stressful. Evidence for the internal consistency and test–retest reliability as well as the convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity of the SMSS was provided. In terms of incremental validity, a multiple regression analysis revealed that after controlling for three other masculinity measures and a generic measure of stress, the SMSS remained significantly and positively related to psychological distress. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.

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The social constructionist perspective has become a useful framework for understanding women’s psychological experiences. However, tools for examining how women construct meanings of their experiences as female in relevant social situations remain limited. Over two studies, our article describes the development and psychometric properties of the Subjective Femininity Stress Scale (SFSS), which assesses women’s stress associated with their subjective experiences of being female. Participants (N = 468) described their personal experiences of what it means to be a woman by completing the sentence “As a woman…” 10 times; participants then rated how often each of the femininity experiences was stressful for them. Participants’ qualitative responses were coded based on 20 dimensions of femininity experiences, and their relationships with SFSS scores were examined. Study 1 provided evidence for test–retest reliability, convergent, and discriminant validity of the SFSS. Study 2 demonstrated concurrent and incremental validity of the SFSS. Several dimensions of femininity experiences were significantly correlated with women’s stress appraisal. The open-ended nature of the SFSS is easy to administer in clinical and organizational settings. The dual qualitative/quantitative aspects of the SFSS enable clients to create personally relevant meanings for their femininity experiences while also providing a stress index for exploring links with health outcomes.

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