Masculinity and Men's Drive for Muscularity: A Meta-Analytic Review

Muscularity concerns are common among men in Western cultures and are associated with disordered eating and steroid abuse. In the present meta-analysis, we examined data from 27 studies (31 samples) to test the association between masculinity constructs and measures of muscularity concerns. The strongest associations were found among studies that related masculinity stress or dysfunction to muscularity concerns (k = 10, r = .36), supporting the hypothesis that muscularity might represent a means to bolster threatened masculinity. This hypothesis is consistent with the theory of precarious manhood. Muscularity concern scores were also significantly correlated with the total scores of masculine norm inventories (k = 13, r = .29) and some specific norms, especially dominance and winning. Future research should examine further the types of strain associated with masculinity.