The Contribution of Gender-Role Orientation to Psychological Distress Among Male African Asylum-Seekers in Israel

Abstract

We investigated the association between gender-role orientation and emotional distress among African male asylum-seekers in Israel. A convenience sample of 60 English-speaking asylum-seekers completed a measure of gender-roles, emotional distress, and posttraumatic stress (PTSD). Androgynous, feminine, and undifferentiated gender roles were most prevalent, while the presence of masculine gender-role was exceptionally low. Androgynous gender-role orientation, characterized by high levels of masculinity and femininity, was associated with lower emotional distress compared with feminine and undifferentiated gender-role orientations beyond the effects of sociodemographic variables and PTSD symptoms. Both instrumental and expressive traits may promote adaptive psychological functioning among African asylum-seeking men.

KEYWORDS:

• Asylum-seeker
• gender-role
• masculinity
• femininity
• mental health
• Israel

Notes

1. Spence and Helmreich (1978) discussed the pros and cons of using the terms masculinity and femininity to describe these scales. We kept the original descriptors in our questionnaire for reasons of continuity.