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International Journal of Sexual Health logoLink to International Journal of Sexual Health
. 2024 May 30;36(3):317–328. doi: 10.1080/19317611.2024.2360739

How Does Masculinity Play a Protective Role for Gay Men? The Mediation Effect of Mindfulness Between Gender Role and Mental Distress

Haoqian Li b, Yangyang Yang e, Yiwen Li c,d, Yimeng Zeng a,✉
PMCID: PMC11323944  PMID: 39148921

Abstract

Masculinity is validated as a protective factor in mental health for gay population. However, potential mediators between masculinity and mental health remain unclear. Mindfulness, as one of the individual’s traits has been proved to play an essential role on mental health. Yet the correlation between mindfulness and masculinity has barely been examined, and whether mindfulness could serve as a key mediator to explain the protective effect masculinity bringing to mental health for gay men remains unknown. To test this hypothesis, we recruited 210 gay men in China to conduct online questionnaires containing scales of FFMQ, BSRI, DASS-21 and demographic features. Based on mediation analysis, we found among gay men, mindfulness significantly mediates the negative relationship between masculinity and stress (SIE (standardized indirect effect) = −.20, 95% CI [–.28 −.11]), anxiety (SIE = −.17, 95% CI [–.26 −.09]) and depression (SIE = −.20, 95% CI [–.29 −.11]). Furthermore, by decomposing sub-dimensions of mindfulness, we found both “describing” and “acting with awareness” exhibit significant mediation effects between masculinity and mental distress. We further found “being analytical”, one key sub-dimension of masculinity, positively correlates with mindful describing (r = .369, p < .001). Our results indicate that trait mindfulness serves as a core mediator between masculinity and mental health, the key trait in masculinity (being analytical) closely connects with the essential element of mindfulness (describing) and low in masculinity might undermine gay men’s abilities of acting with awareness (staying focused). Our findings may also shed light on developing gay men-aimed mindfulness-based clinical interventions.

Keywords: Mindfulness, gender roles, masculinity, gay men, mental distress

Introduction

In daily life, gay men face multiple difficulties which have huge impact on their mental health. Distinct from heterosexual men, gay men have affairs toward someone who share the same gender as themselves. Because of their sex-orientation, they are also much more prone to suffer from various mental distressed situation such as suppression, prejudice, rejection and many other negative interpersonal interactions (Hall, 2018; Wu & Kwok, 2013). Such adversities may substantially increase gay men’s internalized negativity (Lin et al., 2022; Wen & Zheng, 2020) and do harm to gay men’s mental health (Earnshaw et al., 2016; Ryan et al., 2009; Wang et al., 2018). Thus, probing essential protective factors for gay men to prevent from and deal with the impact brought by such adversities is of importance.

Masculinity, a socially constructed concept which determines behaviors and cultural values about what is stereotypically acceptable and appropriate for men (Lin et al., 2021), has been validated by numerous studies that could play a crucial role in gay men’s mental health. And as one of the aspects of individual’s gender role (Bem, 1974), masculinity helps to maintain gender conformity, an consistency between one’s gender and gender role (for example, men are supposed to be masculine, and for men who are low in masculinity are deemed to be recognized as gender non-conformity individuals) (Budge et al., 2016; Landolt et al., 2004; Skidmore et al., 2006). Based on several studies, low gender conformity of man could result in adversities such as prejudice, rejection (Salvati et al., 2021) and may as a consequence, suffer from anxiety, depression and suicide (Colgan, 1987; Friedman et al., 2006) because of the violation of social belief in gender. The situation could be even worse for gay men (Budge et al., 2016; Hunt et al., 2016; Landolt et al., 2004; Skidmore et al., 2006), and may to a certain degree explain why staying masculine can protect gay men from multiple adversities. However, beside of the maintaining of gender conformity, what could be the potential mediator between masculinity and mental distress has been barely examined before.

Mindfulness, a concept originated from Buddhism culture, is defined as the human capacity involving attending to the present moment non-judgmentally and purposefully (Kabat-Zinn, 1982). Recently a surge of research has determined the protective role of mindfulness-based interventions and mindfulness practices for both heterosexual and gay men’s psychological health (Galante et al., 2023; Gayner et al., 2012; Hoge et al., 2015; Iacono, 2018; Kearns et al., 2016; Lau et al., 2020; Schanche et al., 2020; Tan, 2016; XU et al., 2015). More importantly, for those who haven’t received any mindfulness-based intervention or performing any mindfulness practice yet, mindfulness could still serve as a personal trait (trait mindfulness) and exhibits similar protective factors as well (Bajaj & Pande, 2016; Xu et al., 2018). Notably, despite of that trait mindfulness can be significantly improved by relative interventions (Ju et al., 2022; Li et al., 2023; Xie et al., 2023), it is also tightly linked with and substantially modulated by other personal traits (Moradi et al., 2018). Thus, whether masculinity could substantially influence trait mindfulness, and through the mediation effect of trait mindfulness it could finally decrease mental distress, arouse research interest. Such mediation effect of trait mindfulness between masculinity and mental health could give mechanistic explanation regarding to why masculinity could influence the level of mental health especially for gay man. However so far, few studies have directly tested such hypothesis.

In current study, we hypothesized that mindfulness could be a potential mediator between masculinity and mental distress in gay men, however relative research is missing. Based on definition, trait mindfulness can be measured through five sub-dimensions which are observing, describing, non-judging of inner experience, non-reactivity to inner experience, and acting with awareness (Baer et al., 2006). These five distinct constructs represent five elementary components consisted in mindfulness, which are present-centered attention or observation of experience, a nonjudgmental or accepting relationship toward one’s experience, the ability to use language to articulate one’s experience, a nonreactive relationship toward distressing emotions, and engaging in one-mindful and aware behavior (Coffey et al., 2010). These five components of mindfulness have different effects on individuals’ mental health, for example, describing helps to clarify one’s internal thoughts, feelings and experience, while acting with awareness helps to involve more attention and be fully focused on the present moment (Baer et al., 2006). One previous research reveals that one of the masculinity’s sub-dimensions, Success Dedication, is positively correlated with mindfulness and further positively correlated mental health, indicating of the correlation between key components of masculinity and mindfulness (Ramon et al., 2020). Moreover, being analytical, as one sub-division of masculinity (Lu & Su, 2002), reflects how well one is to rationally analyze things. Notably, it constructs the ability of describing, one of the key dimensions of mindfulness, which represents one’s ability to rationally analyze inner thoughts and emotional experience. Based on previous studies, higher describing could help individual better cope with distressed emotion (Baer et al., 2006; Coffey et al., 2010). However, such correlation, between being analytical and describing, haven’t been verified by empirical study yet. Accordingly, shedding light on being analytical can not only help to understand the relationship between mindfulness and masculinity, but also reveal the potential benefit of being analytical on individual’s mental health. Besides, due to gender non-conformity, gay men who are low in masculinity, are more likely to experience gender role conflict (Englar-Carlson, 2006), which generally leads to personal restriction, devaluation (O'Neil et al., 1986), bully and rejections from the outside (Hall, 2018; Wu & Kwok, 2013). Such adversities received early in life could damage gay men’s cognitive abilities, such as staying focused (Richards & Wadsworth, 2004), therefore might have an effect on undermining the key component of mindfulness which is acting with awareness (reflects one’s present-centered attention and one’s ability of staying focused) (Coffey et al., 2010). To sum up, the above-mentioned correlations between mindfulness and masculinity, and correlations between mindfulness and mental distress in gay men all indicate that mindfulness might serve as a potential mediator between masculinity and mental distress. However, direct empirical research and evidence is missing.

Accordingly, the current study proposes the hypothesis that mindfulness serves as a mediator between masculinity and mental distress in gay men. Further, on the basis of testifying the mediation effect of mindfulness, the current study also intends to explore why mindfulness can be such mediator, and whether being analytical correlates with describing therefore can contribute to understand the relationship between mindfulness and masculinity. Since mindfulness is one of the most important personal traits, which has positive impacts under many different scenarios, clarifying the mediation effect of mindfulness between masculinity and mental distress can provide a novel way on understanding the correlation between mindfulness and masculinity in gay group and simultaneously shed light on developing gay men-aimed mindfulness-based clinical interventions.

Method

Participants and procedures

In the current study, 237 Chinese gay men were recruited through the internet, mainly via social communication applications like WECHAT, BLUED, DOUBAN, ZHIHU, and FANKA. Participants needed to complete an online questionnaire provided by the WENJUANXING platform and submit it. After filtering out invalid data (in the middle of the questionnaire, there was one question in which participants were required to choose the first option as their answer; those who did not choose the first option were considered invalid participants), 210 valid responses were left and deemed suitable for conducting further analysis. As for sociodemographic information, the present paper assessed variables such as participants’ age, place of residence, and educational background through questions like "Where do you live?" "How old are you?" and "What is your highest level of education?" Participants, from over 50 different cities, ranged in age from less than 18 to over 50. Specifically, one (0.5%) participant was under 18 years old, 62 (29.5%) participants were between 18 and 22 years old, 78 (37.1%) participants were between 23 and 27 years old, 26 (12.4%) participants were between 27 and 30 years old, 29 (13.8%) participants were between 30 and 35 years old, 9 (4.3%) participants were between 35 and 40 years old, 4 (1.9%) participants were between 40 and 50 years old, and only one (0.5%) participant was over 50 years old. Regarding their education level, 21 (10.0%) participants did not attend college, 122 (58.1%) participants graduated from college, 49 (23.3%) participants obtained their master’s degree, and 18 (8.6%) participants obtained their doctoral degree. Additionally, 61 (29.0%) participants have already come out, and 89 (42.4%) participants are currently single or unmarried. The entire questionnaire took participants approximately 20 minutes to complete, and all participants were fully informed about the purpose, procedure, confidentiality, and compensation method of the research. They also consented to have their data analyzed.

Measurements

Masculinity

The Chinese version of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), previously modified by Lu and Su in 2002, was utilized to evaluate self-reported masculinity (Lu & Su, 2002). The Chinese version of the BSRI, which consists of two sub-scales, has been widely utilized to evaluate self-reported levels of masculinity and femininity (Li et al., 2021; Lu & Su, 2002; Zheng et al., 2020). Its reliability and validity have been established based on prior research. Participants rated how accurately the words described themselves on a 5-point Likert scale. The overall masculine scores were derived by averaging the scores of all items under the masculine sub-scale, which consisted of 14 items describing individual masculinity traits (e.g., Ambitious, Adventurous, Arbitrary, Analytical). In the current study, the standard Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to be 0.91 for the masculine sub-scale. The scores that participants achieved on the item "being analytical," one of the aspects of masculinity, were independently recorded. Gender non-conformity of individuals was indicated by their masculinity scores, with higher scores on the masculinity sub-scale corresponding to lower gender non-conformity.

Mental distress

In this study, the mental distress of gay men was assessed using three negative emotions: depression, stress, and anxiety. These emotions were evaluated through the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21). Each sub-scale included 7 items (e.g., depression: “I couldn’t seem to experience any positive feeling at all”; stress: “I found it difficult to relax”; anxiety: “I felt scared without any good reason”) rated on a 4-point scale (1 = not at all; 4 = very much), with higher scores indicating a higher level of the evaluated emotion and, consequently, a higher level of mental distress. In the current sample, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for depression, stress, and anxiety were 0.92, 0.89, and 0.88, respectively.

Trait mindfulness

The 39-item Chinese version (Deng et al., 2011) of the original instrument of FFMQ (Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire), which was developed by Baer at 2006(Baer et al., 2006) was utilized. The Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) consisted of five sub-scales: observing (e.g., I pay attention to sensations, such as the wind in my hair or sun on my face), describing (e.g., I’m good at finding words to describe my feelings), non-judging of inner experience (e.g., I make judgments about whether my thoughts are good or bad), non-reactivity to inner experience (e.g., I perceive my feelings and emotions without having to react to them), and acting with awareness (e.g., I find myself doing things without paying attention). These five distinct constructs represent five elementary components consisted in mindfulness, which are present-centered attention or observation of experience, a nonjudgmental or accepting relationship toward one’s experience, the ability to use language to articulate one’s experience, a nonreactive relationship toward distressing emotions, and engaging in one-mindful and aware behavior (Coffey et al., 2010). The final score of the FFMQ was determined by combining the scores of the five sub-scales. Participants rated items on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (never or rarely true) to 5 (very often or always true). Higher scores indicated a higher level of mindfulness. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging, non-reactivity, and overall mindfulness in this study were 0.87, 0.77, 0.92, 0.84, 0.79, and 0.75, respectively. Notably, due to the fact that the sub-dimension of acting with awareness measured by FFMQ is actually a measurement toward one’s present-centered attention and ability of staying focused (Coffey et al., 2010), the current study therefore utilized the score on the sub-scale of acting with awareness to reflect gay men’s abilities of staying focused.

Data analyses

All analyses were performed using SPSS 26.0, which included calculating means, standard deviations (SD), Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, correlations, and ANOVA. The mediation effects were assessed using the Bootstrap method through SPSS Process v3.3. P-values of .05, .005, and .001 were applied to indicate varying levels of significance in all statistical tests.

In this study, mediation tests were conducted using mindfulness as the mediator to examine whether mindfulness serves as a potential mediator between masculinity and mental distress. For the exploratory analysis, the study initially performed mediation tests with the five sub-dimensions of mindfulness as independent mediators respectively, to testify which sub-dimensions could support the mediation effect of mindfulness. Besides, the current study also wants to directly testify the correlation between being analytical and describing in order to provide empirical evidence and data support for understanding the relationship between mindfulness and masculinity. Subsequently, Pearson correlation tests were conducted between "being analytical" (a key component of masculinity) and "describing" (a key component of mindfulness) to further verify the correlation between mindfulness and masculinity. Notably, the study directly tested the indirect effect to determine whether the 95% confidence intervals (CI) included 0. Any indirect effects whose 95% CI did not include 0 were considered to have significant relative mediation effects (Wen & Ye, 2014).

Results

In order to examine the general relationship between all variables, tests on Spearman’s correlation were performed. As shown in Table 1, masculinity was positively correlated with observing, describing, non-reactivity, and mindfulness, and negatively correlated with stress, anxiety, and depression. Stress, anxiety, and depression were positively correlated with each other.

Table 1.

Means, standard deviations (SD) and correlations between the variables (N = 210).

  M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 Masculinity 4.99 .95 1.00                  
2 Stress 13.99 5.08 −.18** 1.00                
3 Anxiety 12.68 4.85 −.18** .86*** 1.00              
4 Depression 13.00 5.29 −.20** .86*** .84*** 1.00            
5 Observing 25.09 6.90 .17* .30*** .34*** .25*** 1.00          
6 Describing 26.62 5.74 .25*** −.25*** −.23*** −.30*** .37*** 1.00        
7 Awareness 26.61 7.38 .12 −.74*** −.70*** −.69*** −.36*** .21** 1.00      
8 Non-judging 23.49 6.06 −.02 −.59*** −.56*** −.53*** −.57*** −.07 .60*** 1.00    
9 Non-reactivity 2.79 4.85 .34*** .18** .20** .14* .63*** .27*** −.35*** −.56*** 1.00  
10 Mindfulness 122.60 14.33 .35*** −.52*** −.46*** −.53*** .42*** .75*** .56*** .24*** .33*** 1.00
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Mediation test on mindfulness between masculinity and mental distress

Results showed that mindfulness mediated the relationship between masculinity and stress (SIE (standardized indirect effect) = −.20, 95% CI [–.28, −.11]), anxiety (SIE = −.17, 95% CI [–.26 −.09]) and depression (SIE = −.20, 95% CI [–.29 −.11]) (see Table 2). Path coefficients of the mediation effects were shown in Figure 1. As shown, masculinity was positively correlated with mindfulness (β = .377, p < .001), and mindfulness was negatively correlated with stress (β = −.521, p < .001), anxiety (β = −.450, p < .001), and depression (β = −.524, p < .001). Our results indicated that mindfulness played a mediation role between masculinity and mental distress for gay men.

Table 2.

Standardized indirect effect, BootSE, lower bounds and upper bounds of CI on mindfulness (N = 210).

Paths Standardized indirect effect BootSE 95% CI
Lower bounds Upper bounds
Masculine-mindfulness-stress −.20 .04 −.28 −.11
Masculine-mindfulness-anxiety −.17 .04 −.26 −.09
Masculine-mindfulness-depression −.20 .04 −.29 −.11
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Figure 1.

Figure 1.

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Path coefficients of the mediation effects of mindfulness between masculine and mental distress (N = 210).

Mediation test on mindfulness’s sub-dimensions respectively

Further, this paper examined the mediation effects of the five sub-dimensions of mindfulness, as results showed in Table 3 with significant mediation effects being highlighted. As shown, regardless of the type of mental distress, three sub-dimensions of mindfulness always remained significant mediation effects, which were describing, awareness, and non-reactivity. Specifically, describing mediated the relationship between masculinity and stress (SIE = −.05, 95% CI [–.11 −.01]), anxiety (SIE = −.04, 95% CI [–.10 −.01]), and depression (SIE = −.06, 95% CI [–.12 −.01]); acting with awareness mediated the relationship between masculinity and stress (SIE = −.17, 95% CI [–.28 −.05]), anxiety (SIE = −.04, 95% CI [–.10 −.01]) and depression (SIE = −.16, 95% CI [–.26 −.04]); non-reactivity mediated the relationship between masculinity and stress (SIE = .08, 95% CI [.02 .14]), anxiety (SIE = .09, 95% CI [.03 .16]), and depression (SIE = .07, 95% CI [.02 .14]). Thus, via decomposing sub-dimension of mindfulness, we further found describing, awareness as well as non-reactivity could substantially mediate the relationship between gay men’s masculinity and associated mental health.

Table 3.

Standardized indirect effect, BootSE, lower bounds and upper bounds of CI on sub-dimensions (N = 210).

Paths Standardized indirect effect BootSE 95% CI
Lower bounds Upper bounds
Masculine-observing-stress 0.01 0.03 −0.04 0.07
Masculine-describing-stress −0.05 0.03 −0.11 −0.01
Masculine-awareness-stress −0.17 0.06 −0.28 −0.05
Masculine-non-judging-stress −0.08 0.05 −0.17 0.01
Masculine-non-reactivity-stress 0.08 0.03 0.02 0.14
Masculine-observing-anxiety 0.01 0.03 −0.05 0.08
Masculine-describing-anxiety −0.04 0.02 −0.10 −0.01
Masculine-awareness-anxiety −0.16 0.06 −0.27 −0.05
Masculine-non-judging-anxiety −0.08 0.04 −0.16 0.02
Masculine-non-reactivity-anxiety 0.09 0.03 0.03 0.16
Masculine-observing-depression 0.01 0.02 −0.04 0.06
Masculine-describing-depression −0.06 0.03 −0.12 −0.01
Masculine-awareness-depression −0.16 0.05 −0.26 −0.04
Masculine-non-judging-depression −0.07 0.04 −0.16 0.01
Masculine-non-reactivity-depression 0.07 0.03 0.02 0.14
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Pearson correlation test between being analytical and describing

In order to determine whether the key component of masculinity (being analytical/rational) correlates with the key component of mindfulness (describing), pearson correlation analysis was further conducted. The results showed that being analytical strongly correlated with describing (r = .369, p < .001).

Discussion

Current study’s focus is whether mindfulness could serve as an essential mediator between masculinity and mental distress in gay men. Through above analyses, current study found that mindfulness positively correlated with gay men’s masculinity and further negatively correlated with mental distress. Furthermore, in order to give explanations of why mindfulness can be a potential mediator, we ascertained the mediation effects of mindfulness’s sub-dimensions, for example, describing, acting with awareness and non-reactivity. Finally, through exploration analysis, the current study has found significant correlation between the key component of mindfulness (describing) and masculinity (being analytical).

Mindfulness serves as a mediator in the relationship between masculinity and mental distress

Our results support that mindfulness substantially mediates the relationship between masculinity and mental distress for gay men, which means that the more masculine gay men are the more mindful they are and therefore the lower mentally distressed they tend to be. Further, the current study found that after adding the mediation paths, the direct effect of masculinity to mental distress became insignificant, indicating that mindfulness may explain the most effect that masculinity has on mental distress in gay men. Besides, as for different distressed emotion, anxiety, depression and stress all showed significant negative correlation with mindfulness, indicating the importance and effectiveness of mindfulness helping gay men to cope with daily distress. Such finding is in coherent with previous research results that mindfulness-based interventions or practices can have positive effect on gay youth’s mental health (Iacono, 2018; Tan, 2016) and can help gay men to alleviate the negative feelings or thoughts brought by severe disease, such as HIV (Gayner et al., 2012). Besides, gender non-conformity and the eager to maintain gender status can cause both internalized and externalized negativity for gay men such as stress, shame, aggression and prejudice (Mesler et al., 2022; Parrott, 2009; Stanaland et al., 2023). For example, motivated by gender role enforcement heterosexual men exhibit aggression toward gay men (Parrott, 2009) while at the meantime, gay men might feel stressed and threatened to show their masculinity so that are extrinsically motivated to elicit aggression as well as responses (Mesler et al., 2022; Stanaland et al., 2023). Whereas mindfulness can help to reduce rumination, increase emotional regulation abilities and help to be non-attached to certain beliefs (Coffey et al., 2010), therefore mindfulness might be of important and useful to cope with negativity. Moreover, facing the stigma and prejudice, mindfulness can help gay men better live in the present moment and focus on what they should do next in the real life instead of the thoughts in their mind, accordingly mindfulness may serve as an important role to generate adaptive emotional regulation and coping strategies and further play a critical role in protective gay men’s mental health. To sum up, the current study ascertained the mediation effect of mindfulness between masculinity and mental distress, indicating that gay men high in masculinity, in contrast with those who are not high in masculinity, may be better at combining mindful actions and attitudes in their daily life (Coffey et al., 2010), therefore, generally experience less negative emotion.

In contrast with examining the mediation role of mindfulness, previous research mainly focused on examining the mediation role regarding to self-compassion (Booth et al., 2019; Patzak et al., 2017; Yarnell et al., 2018). For example, previous research has found that among military veterans self-compassion negatively correlated with masculinity (Ramon et al., 2020) while among nonmilitary participants it positively correlated with masculinity (Yarnell et al., 2018). However, despite that self-compassion also involves the practice of mindfulness, it is different from mindfulness for it is additionally characterized by kindness toward oneself and a view of suffering as a part of the human condition (Dahm et al., 2015; Neff, 2003). Therefore, what have been found in the current study, to a certain degree, can directly fill the research gap.

Mindfulness consists of different components, as for how the specific components of mindfulness interact with masculinity, needs further exploration. Mindfulness is a combination of both action and attitude, which asks individuals to purposefully attend to the present moment and then have an open mind to accept all the feelings, thoughts from both internal and external world. Therefore, the five sub-dimensions of mindfulness all have different effects on mental health (Coffey et al., 2010). Therefore, in order to further clarify the mediation effect of mindfulness, and the correlation between mindfulness and masculinity, the current study performed exploration analysis on mediation effects of mindfulness’s sub-dimensions.

Differential mediator influence induced by sub-dimensions of mindfulness

As for the exploration analyses, based on both Pearson correlation analysis and mediation analyses, the current study ascertained that describing positively correlated with masculinity while negatively correlated with mental distress, indicating that masculine gay men are good at describing their internal feelings; acting with awareness positively correlated with masculinity while negatively correlated with mental distress, illustrating that masculine gay men usually behave or act with awareness of what they are presently doing; non-reactivity was somehow positively correlated with gay men’s mental distress level.

Above findings illustrate that the key component of mindfulness, such as describing maybe correlate with the key component of masculinity which is being analytical. In other word, because of the merits of being masculine (rational and analytical) (D’Zurilla et al., 2002; Ju et al., 2015; Rogers et al., 2019), masculine gay men generally are better at figuring out what they think, how they feel, and then to describe it. Meanwhile, describing one’s internal feelings is also one of the fundamental skills of mindfulness which helps to promote adaptive acknowledgment and regulation of negative emotion (Carpenter et al., 2019; Coffey et al., 2010), therefore masculine gay men may be better at coping with affective symptoms than those who are less masculine (Raphiphatthana et al., 2019).

Moreover, above findings also show that, gay men’s masculinity is associated with their abilities of staying focused. The sub-dimension of acting with awareness measured here (by FFMQ), has been pointed out to be a measurement toward one’s present-centered attention and one’s ability of staying focused (Coffey et al., 2010). Besides, present-centered attention can improve the clarity of internal experience and then increase the ability to regulate negative emotions, and help to amplify the sense that one’s happiness is internally determined which is independent from the external circumstances. Accordingly, present-centered attention has been proved to be helpful for being non-attached to the misleading belief regarding to life and happiness, therefore contributes to reduce rumination and minimize negative emotional experience (Coffey et al., 2010). Notably, gay men who are not adhering to the traditional masculine norms, due to gender nonconformity, are more likely to be treated as abnormal kids, therefore receive bully and rejection from peers or other family numbers (Friedman et al., 2006; Landolt et al., 2004). Besides, gender nonconformity for gay men is also associated with severe physical victimization (Pilkington & D’Augelli, 1995) and suicide attempts (Proctor & Groze, 1994). These adversities gay men have received during their growth could severely damage their abilities of staying focused (Boulton et al., 2012; Richards & Wadsworth, 2004). Therefore, being masculine maybe contribute a lot to the development of gay men’s abilities of staying focused.

Finally, this paper also found a very interesting but conflicting result that the sub-dimension of non-reactivity is positively correlated with gay men’s mental distress level. Such inverse phenomenon may attribute to the potential effect of individual’s experience on mindfulness (Baer et al., 2006; Coffey et al., 2010). According to previous research, mindfulness consists of a purposeful action of fully attending to the present moment, and a specific attitude to guide such action which requests one to be open minded and receptive to the current experiences, rather than ignoring or minimizing them (Coffey et al., 2010). However, such attitude might be difficult for novices to master therefore the actions of attending to the present moment, that novices perform, are generally without the guidance of mindful attitude. Further, without the mindful attitude which tells novices to accept the feelings and thoughts aroused after attending to the present moment and then leave them behind and move forward, the behavior that novices take to cope with unpleasant experiences maybe simply reflect a tendency of trying to escape from or avoid the present moment. Therefore, the behavior that they take doesn’t reflect the true meaning of mindfulness. Besides, researcher has also suggested that asking novices to stop to respond to their present feelings and thoughts may make them confused about what they should think and what to do next (Ramon et al., 2020). Thus, it’s likely that non-judging or non-reactivity reflect the degree that how much novices get bewildered and stuck into the dilemma while simultaneously take less actions to solve the current problems therefore experience more negative emotions.

Limitations

First, the current study only found the significant mediation effects of describing, acting with awareness and non-reactivity. However, it doesn’t necessarily indicate that the other components of mindfulness play no role in the relationship between masculinity and mental distress. Second, cultural background may have an impact on the masculinity of gay men, and further may influence the mediator role of mindfulness. Future work should dedicate more on the above-mentioned limitations.

Conclusions

The current study validates that mindfulness is one of the key mediators between masculinity and mental distress in gay men, which positively correlates with masculinity and negatively correlates with mental distress. Besides, the sub-dimensions of mindfulness, such as describing and acting with awareness could have mediation effects as well to support the mediation effect regarding to mindfulness. Further, current study also found that the key component of masculinity (being analytical/rational) closely correlates with the key component of mindfulness(describing), and gender non-conformity could undermine gay men’s abilities of staying focused. Overall, current study has proved that the positive effect of masculinity on gay men’s mental health is associated with their level of trait mindfulness and further emphasize that mindfulness could be a core protective factor for gay men and help them better manage the negative effects of prejudice and stigma from external environment. Our findings may also shed light on developing gay men-aimed mindfulness-based clinical interventions.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all the participants and researchers who were involved in this study. This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2024-JYB-XJSJJ020).

Funding Statement

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2024-JYB-XJSJJ020).

Author contributions

Haoqian Li designed and executed this study, collected and analyzed the data, and write the manuscript and revised the manuscript. Yangyang Yang helped to collect the data. Yiwen Li provided suggestions on the structure of the manuscript. Yimeng Zeng co-designed the study and write original manuscript and revised the manuscript.

Informed consent

Informed consent regarding the procedure and purpose of the experiment and the use of their data was obtained for each participant before the experiment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

Current study was approved by the Medical and Experimental Animal Ethics Committee of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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