Project Summary

This project investigates the criterion and structural validity of the recent published abbreviated version of the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (Mahalik et al., 2003, Levant et al., 2020). The CMNI has been a staple of men and masculinities studies since its development with consistent support for its reliability, validity, and factor structure over the last 20 years. However, the recently published CMNI-30 lacks substantial evidence for its validity. This project entails three studies that examine evidence for the scale’s concurrent validity, the factor structure in two samples, as well as the measure invariance of the CMNI-30 between heterosexual and sexual minority men.

Approach

Measurement validation

Measurement & Metrics

• Confirmatory factor analyses
• Tests of association to establish validity
  

Key Findings

• In Study 1, subscales related to less confidence in science, less adherence to CDC recommendations for the pandemic, less empathy toward those vulnerable to COVID-19, and more conservative political ideology. 
  
  
• In Study 2, subscales related to sexual minority men reporting less stigma consciousness, greater internalized homophobia, and great motivation to conceal their sexual orientation. Examining structural validity, CFAs indicated that the factor structure had good fit indices for heterosexual and sexual minority men, and that the measure demonstrated configural, metric, scalar, and strict invariance between sexual orientations. 
  
  
• Results provide further support for the continued use of the CMNI-30 in empirical research to assess conformity to traditional masculine norms, and greater confidence that the scale structure is applicable for men from different sexual orientations. In doing so, it provides researchers greater confidence in the scale’s use for examining the role that traditional masculine norms contribute to individual, family, and societal issues.