Effects of gender and gender role identification of participant and type of social support resource on support seeking

The relationship between type of social support resource (emotional vs. instrumental support) sought and gender and gender role identification was examined. Gender-typed and androgynous, white, middle to upper middle class males and females were given scenarios describing situations in which help was needed, and which also identified a female helper who would provide either emotional or instrumental support. The results indicated that males reported a significantly lower likelihood of seeking emotional support than instrumental support, while no significant differences were found between levels of seeking emotional and instrumental support for females. In comparing men and women for each type of support, it was found that males reported a significantly lower likelihood of seeking emotional support than did females. In addition, gender-typed males reported seeking emotional support significantly less than did the other three groups: androgynous males and females, and gender-typed females.This article was derived from the first author's master's thesis, who wishes to gratefully acknowledge the support and guidance of Ann Fuehrer, Richard Sherman, and Stephen Hinkle in the preparation of this article, the assistance of Andrew Avellano and Jami Pennington, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on this article.