School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
Body Image. 2020 Sep;34:94-100. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2020.04.003. Epub 2020 Jul 10.
Muscularity dissatisfaction is documented to be a pervasive phenomenon among men. While previous studies have examined theoretically relevant predictors of muscularity dissatisfaction, such as adherence to traditional masculine norms, to the best of our knowledge we are not aware of empirical research that has assessed how perceived discrepancies in one's level of masculinity may also be associated with these concerns. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine whether perceived deficits in masculinity bear predictive utility over and above adherence to traditional masculine norms in the context of muscularity dissatisfaction. An online survey that included measures assessing the aforementioned constructs was completed by 390 university and community adult men. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that while adherence to masculine norms was associated with increased muscularity dissatisfaction, masculine role discrepancy (and attendant stress) were particularly strong predictors of muscularity dissatisfaction. Our findings make a novel contribution to the male body image literature by demonstrating the relative importance of perceived discrepancies in masculinity, and related stress, in the context of muscularity dissatisfaction. Pending replication in relevant clinical samples using prospective designs, this study provides preliminary evidence that masculine role discrepancies may be promising targets to help allay muscularity concerns among men.
肌肉不满在男性中是一种普遍存在的现象。虽然之前的研究已经考察了与肌肉不满相关的理论预测因素，如对传统男性规范的遵守，但据我们所知，我们没有意识到有实证研究评估一个人对男性气质的感知差异是否也与这些问题有关。因此，本研究的目的是确定在肌肉不满的情况下，男性气质的感知缺陷是否比遵守传统男性规范具有预测效用。一项在线调查包括评估上述结构的措施，由 390 名大学和社区成年男性完成。分层回归分析表明，虽然遵守男性规范与肌肉不满增加有关，但男性角色差异（和随之而来的压力）是肌肉不满的特别强烈的预测因素。我们的研究结果通过证明在肌肉不满的情况下，男性气质的感知差异和相关压力的相对重要性，为男性身体形象文献做出了新的贡献。在使用前瞻性设计的相关临床样本中进行复制之前，本研究提供了初步证据，表明男性角色差异可能是缓解男性肌肉担忧的有前途的目标。
