Gender-related personal attributes and psychological adjustment among US Army soldiers

Personality characteristics associated with successful adaptation to milita ry life are often described in gender-related terms. However, valid, reliab le measures of gender-related personality characteristics have not been est ablished for military populations. The purpose of this study was to validat e an instrument for measuring gender-related personality characteristics in an active duty population. The Extended Personal Attributes Questionnaire was administered to 1,060 male soldiers and 305 female soldiers in U.S. Arm y support units. Results of a factor analysis indicated that there are thre e separate factors. The first denotes negatively valued aggressive traits ( Negative Masculinity), the second denotes negatively valued passive traits (Negative Femininity), and the third combines positive instrumental and pos itive expressive traits, referred to as the Combined factor. Although posit ive instrumental traits (referred to as Masculinity) were related to fewer psychological symptoms, Negative Masculinity and Negative Femininity were a ssociated with increased psychological symptoms. Positive expressive traits (referred to as Femininity) were unrelated to psychological symptoms.