Precarious manhood beliefs portray manhood, relative to womanhood, as a social status that is hard to earn, easy to lose, and proven via public action. Here, we present cross-cultural data on a brief measure of precarious manhood beliefs (the Precarious Manhood Beliefs scale [PMB]) that covaries meaningfully with other cross-culturally validated gender ideologies and with country-level indices of gender equality and human development. Using data from university samples in 62 countries across 13 world regions ( N = 33,417), we demonstrate: (1) the psychometric isomorphism of the PMB (i.e., its comparability in meaning and statistical properties across the individual and country levels); (2) the PMB’s distinctness from, and associations with, ambivalent sexism and ambivalence toward men; and (3) associations of the PMB with nation-level gender equality and human development. Findings are discussed in terms of their statistical and theoretical implications for understanding widely-held beliefs about the precariousness of the male gender role.

Couples cope with their stress as a unit rather than two isolated individuals. Couples coping were well examined by the Dyadic Coping Inventory (DCI) in European and American population, but not in Asian population. We aim to examine the applicability of DCI in Japanese married couples. Participants were 44 heterosexual couples in Japan. They answered the DCI and marital satisfaction. Results supported the applicability of DCI generally and showed several partner effects. The partner effects of DCI were discussed from the perspective of perceived social support.

This study elucidated the relationship-focused coping patterns of Japanese child-rearing couples. Participants were 101 Japanese couples with at least one pre-school child who was attending one of four daycare centres. Questionnaires included a Japanese version of the relationship-focused coping questionnaire, the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale, and the WHO-5 Well-Being Index. Cluster analysis revealed three relationship-focused coping patterns: ‘wife escapes/husband combines’, ‘mutual active relationship maintenance couples’, and ‘wife engages/husband combines’. Our study showed that relationship-focused coping has multidimensional aspects within couples. Furthermore, mutual active relationship maintenance after marital conflict within couples is important for their marital satisfaction.

We validated the Japanese version of the Multidimensional Stress Questionnaire for Couples (MSQ) and examined construct validity and reliability. We conducted an online longitudinal survey of 300 husbands and 300 wives. The Japanese version of the MSQ (MSQ-J) had a two-factor structure centred on internal and external stressors. The internal-stressor factor showed sufficient validity and reliability, indicating its suitability for measuring marital stressors. The external-stressors factor also showed acceptable validity for both husbands and wives. The findings indicate that the MSQ-J is suitable for both research and clinical practice.

Social role theory posits that binary gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in less egalitarian countries, reflecting these countries’ more pronounced sex-based power divisions. Conversely, evolutionary and self-construal theorists suggest that gender gaps in agency and communion should be larger in more egalitarian countries, reflecting the greater autonomy support and flexible self-construction processes present in these countries. Using data from 62 countries ( N = 28,640), we examine binary gender gaps in agentic and communal self-views as a function of country-level objective gender equality (the Global Gender Gap Index) and subjective distributions of social power (the Power Distance Index). Findings show that in more egalitarian countries, gender gaps in agency are smaller and gender gaps in communality are larger. These patterns are driven primarily by cross-country differences in men’s self-views and by the Power Distance Index (PDI) more robustly than the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI). We consider possible causes and implications of these findings.