The Correlation Between Body Mass Index and Gender Role Stress Among Young Hungarian Males
The Correlation Between Body Mass Index and Gender Role Stress Among Young Hungarian Males

Summary/Abstract: According to literature references, Body Mass Index (BMI), the quality of sexual life, sexual activity,and satisfaction with sexual life are closely associated. However, we found no research dealingwith the relation of gender role stress to the above-mentioned factors in our review of the literature. That is why we chose to focus our research on the association of BMI and gender role stress ofyoung Hungarian adult men. Our data is from the ‘Hungarostudy 2013’ (SUSÁNSZKY & SZÉKELY2013) national representative survey (N = 2000) of which 298 18–35-year-old men belonged tothe subsample researched. Besides socio-demographic data, we used data on height, weight, selfratedhealth status, the WHO (World Health Organization) Well-Being Index, the Illness IntrusivenessRating Scale and the short form of Beck Depression Inventory. The Male Gender Role StressScale (MGRS) was used to measure gender role stress.Our results demonstrate that overweight and obesity play a significant role in the development ofgender role stress. Young overweight and obese men in our sample were much more likely toreport high gender role stress (OR = 1.67) and within this, sexual performance related stress (OR= 1.76) and sexual arousal related stress (OR = 3.15) than men with normal BMI.As our research was aimed at investigating social expectations measurable in terms of gender rolestress and not with real sexual dysfunctions per se, our results indicate that even male gender roleexpectations, more precisely, sexual performance related expectations, may cause considerablestress for overweight/obese men.

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