Abstract
Both current theorizing on masculinities and existing measurement of the culture-based standards scripting men’s gender practices ignore later life (Spector-Mersel, 2006; Thompson & Bennett, 2015). The present study reports the development of a measure of the masculinity ideologies relevant to the lives of aging men, as determined by a large sample (N = 1184) of adult men and women (age 31–91). An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using Mplus v 7.4 on a randomly selected subsample from the data supported a 15-item 5-factor scale, which confirmative factory analysis (CFA) affirmed using the balance of the data (χ2 (94) = 240.48; p < .001, CFI = .931; TLI = .912; RMSEA = .039 (90% CI = .033, .045); SRMR = .041). Analyses of measurement invariance indicated that the Aging Men’s Masculinity Ideologies Inventory (AMMII) demonstrated configural and metric invariance across the age groups and between men and women for the five later life masculinity standards. These results strongly suggest that mature and aging women and men share similar beliefs about what is expected of men’s later life gender practices. However, since full scalar invariance was not found, multivariate analyses of variance predictably demonstrated (Wilks λ = .010, F = 22235.80, df 5, 1155, p < .001) that men and women differed in the extent to which later life masculinity ideologies were supported or opposed. Men more strongly agreed with all five masculinity ideologies. The AMMII’s predictive validity encourages use of this new, short multidimensional scale, the Aging Men’s Masculinity Ideologies Inventory.