Men’s self-compassion and self-esteem: The moderating roles of shame and masculine norm adherence.

Abstract

Self-compassion, a relatively new but increasingly popular alternative to self-esteem, has been found to vary by gender, with men reporting greater levels than women. The current study furthers this emerging area of inquiry by addressing the relationships among conformity to masculine norms, trait shame, self-esteem, and self-compassion for 145 heterosexual men. Results demonstrated that higher levels of self-compassion were related to lower masculine norm adherence, lower trait shame, and higher self-esteem. In addition, 2 significant interactions emerged, with shame moderating the relation between masculine norm adherence and both self-esteem and self-compassion. These findings highlight the complex interdependence between emotional disposition and gender orientation in men’s self-concepts.