Students' Sex Role Types And The Relationship Between Self-esteem, Subjective Well-being

In recent years, the study of gender role types among college students has becomea hot point in the field of personality education. Based on Bem's multiple models ofsex scheme, in present study, 342 college students were divided into four gender roletypes. They are masculine, feminine, androgynous and undifferentiated, according tothe combination of masculinity and femininity on different levels. On the base ofmulti-dimensional and multi-level self-worth model, we investigated the influence ofdifferent oriented (individual-oriented and social-oriented) self-worth on subjectivewell-being, and the differences of this influence among different gender role types.We added the variable of gender role type to the study of relationship betweenself-worth and subjective well-being and investigated this relationship in a more detaillevel. These are the important points of our study which have never been investigatedin the past. Besides, we have deeper investigation on androgyny in this study.The main results of this study are as follow:(1) Among the college students, the distribution percentages of the four genderrole types are significantly different. The majorities are androgynous andundifferentiated. Androgyny occupies the highest percentage. Factors such as genderand region significantly affect the distribution of gender role types. (2) As a high levelcombination of positive masculinity and femininity, androgyny has the highest levelsof subjective well-being, global self-worth and individual-oriented general self-worth.This result supports the conclusion obtained from many other studies before. That isandrogyny is the ideal gender role type. (3) The scores of androgyny on subjectivewell-being, self-worth and self-construal scales are not significantly different by sexes.It seems that masculinity and femininity have different meaning for androgyny'smental health. Masculinity has significant positive influence on androgyny's wholesubjective well-being and global self-worth, but the influence of femininity is notsignificant. (4) The statistics results obtained from all the participants in this studyshow that, both the individual-oriented self-worth and social-oriented self-worth aregood predictors for whole subjective well-being, but the cases are different in different gender role type groups. (5) Individual-oriented general self-worth is amediator factor between independent self-construal and whole subjective well-being.Independent self-construal affects whole subjective well-being through the influenceof individual-oriented general self-worth. Social-oriented general self-worth is amediator factor between interdependent self-construal and whole subjectivewell-being. Interdependent self-construal affects whole subjective well-being throughthe influence of social-oriented general self-worth.In a word, this study can enrich the theories about gender role types, especiallyabout androgyny. On the other hand, it also supplies some use for reference andinspiration for psychology consultation of college students and education of mentalhealth. For example, the results of this study are meaningful for the direction ofpersonality education and the methods about improving one's subjective well beingby improving his or her self-worth.