The Masculine Depression Scale: Development and psychometric evaluation.

Abstract

A preponderance of anecdotal evidence suggests that men manifest depression differently than women and that this atypical symptom presentation is even more evident in men who adhere to restrictive masculine norms (Cochran & Rabinowitz, 2000; Real, 1997). The aim of this study was to develop a self-report assessment instrument, the Masculine Depression Scale (MDS), which captures these atypical symptoms of depression. One hundred and two men who experienced a recent stressful life event were asked to complete measures of prototypic depression, masculine norm conformity, and our measure of masculine depres-sion. Factor analyses yielded a two-factor solution: internalizing and externalizing symp-toms. Externalizing symptoms were moderately correlated with measures of depression and masculine norm adherence, while internalizing symptoms were highly correlated with measures of depression but unrelated to masculine norm adherence. Men who adhered strongly to masculine norms were more likely to endorse externalizing symptoms on the MDS than prototypic symptoms of depression. The findings suggest that the MDS may be capturing aspects of depression associated with masculine gender socialization that are not captured by existing measures.