In the article “Examining Masculine Gender Role Conflict and Stress in Relation to Religious Orientation and Spiritual Well-Being”, authors James R. Mahalik and Hugh D. Logan delve into the topic of  the intersection between gender roles and religion. More specifically, the two men wished to answer the research question: “Do gender role conflict and stress predict. Catholic seminarian an college age men’s religiosity and spiritual well-being?”. To answer this question, the researchers collected data in the form of surveys, asking 151 single, primarily Caucasian, Catholic men to fill out several tests. Of these men, 77 were seminarians, while the rest were not. Both groups were surveyed on the Gender Role Conflict Scale, the Gender Role Stress Scale, the Extrensic and Intrinsic Religious Orientation Scales, and the Spiritual Well-Being Scale. Mahalik and Logan analyzed the results of the surveys, and came to the conclusion that there are significant relationships between gender role conflict and stress and religiosity and well-being. Interestingly, however, these relationships were often manifested differently between nonseminarians and seminarians, with seminarians often fairing worse than nonseminarians when under a great deal of gender role stress and conflict.

I found the project to be very interesting, though I do agree with the authors’ sown assessment that the self-reported nature of the project, as well as the common answer of “not applicable”, may have somewhat skewed the data. I did appreciate that the numbers of seminarians and nonseminarians were nearly equal, and that both groups drew from a range of states. I would have liked to see a broader study on the topic, rather than one focusing on a single religious denomination, but understand that to do so would have required a much more extensive study. As a whole, I found the article to be interesting, and the arguement to be compelling.

Psychology of Men & Masculinity 2.1, Jan 2001, pgs. 24-33