Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to examine whether ethnic identity, social desirability, and conformity to masculine norms would predict psychological functioning and alexithymia in a diverse group of men. Alexithymia as a predictor of externalizing symptoms was also examined. The sample included 107 White, 71 African American, and 106 Latino heterosexual, undergraduate males from a private university and a community college in Southern California. Participants completed a web-based survey that included a demographic questionnaire, and the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory-46, the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure-Revised, the Symptom Questionnaire, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability-Short Form. Multiple regression analyses found social desirability to be the most common predictor of psychological functioning for all three ethnic groups. For African American men, winning predicted fewer depressive symptoms, while violence predicted anger-hostility. Emotional control predicted alexithymia in all three ethnic groups. Additionally, for African American men, alexithymia was also predicted by power over women. For Latino men, greater conformity to violence predicted lower degrees of alexithymia. Alexithymia was found to be a predictor of somatization in all three ethnic groups and anger-hostility in White and Latino men. Greater conformity to masculine norms as a predictor of poorer psychological functioning and alexithymia was only partially supported. Conformity to emotional control predicted alexithymia in all three ethnic groups. Alexithymia predicted externalizing symptoms in the three ethnic groups of men, with the exception of anger-hostility in African American men. Clinical implications, limitations of this study, and future research directions were discussed.