Development and Validation of a Five-Item Male Role Norms Inventory Using Bifactor Modeling

Measures of traditional masculinity ideology (TMI) provide important information related to men’s well-being. However, most TMI measures are too long to be included in large public health, psychological, or medical survey batteries. Drawing on previous bifactor analyses of the Male Role Norms Inventory–Short Form (MRNI-SF), structural equation modeling (SEM) identified five items with variance primarily explained by a TMI general factor. These items formed the Male Role Norms Inventory–Very Brief (MRNI-VB), a unidimensional measure of the same TMI general factor captured by the MRNI-SF bifactor model. Several analyses were completed determining that the MRNI-VB performed as well as the original MRNI-SF. First, the unidimensional MRNI-VB evidenced equivalent fit to the bifactor MRNI-SF model in an archival sample of college and community men and women (n = 6,744). Second, the MRNI-VB yielded statistically similar standardized beta coefficients to the MRNI-SF TMI general factor across 32 out of 38 regressions predicting variables within and outside of the MRNI nomological network in published (n = 484) and unpublished (n = 1,537) MRNI-SF research of college and community men. Third, in an unpublished sample of undergraduates who filled out the MRNI-VB instead of the entire MRNI-SF (n = 365), the MRNI-VB yielded good model fit, good internal consistency reliability, and demonstrated a similar pattern of measurement invariance between men and women as the MRNI-SF. Overall, findings suggest that the MRNI-VB captures the same general TMI factor as the MRNI-SF but with a fraction of the items. Future directions, limitations, and implications are discussed.