Comprehensive Gender-Related Measures Review

We searched PsycINFO, PsycTESTS, and PubMed for all English-language studies using gender-related tests and scales, from 1975 through 2015, to identify existing questionnaires or scales and construct a comprehensive list of typical traits and/or characteristics used in gender-related measures in both psychology and medicine. We screened an initial sample of 2981 articles from PubMed, PsycTESTS, and PsycINFO from which 405 articles were deemed relevant for further interrogation, within which 127 unique gender-related tests and scales were identified. We also screened existing literature reviews published in books and found four additional scales. Altogether, 131 gender-related questionnaires were sorted into three overarching categories for analyzing gender norms, gender-related traits, and gender relations. Further, we checked citation frequencies for each scale to determine how often it has been used in the literature. All gender scales with at least 20 Google Scholar citations within the last 10 years were selected for further investigation, of which 74 scales met the criteria. All articles published from 2006 to 2015 were retained for further investigation irrespective of whether they were cited or not (the search methods, selection criteria, and review procedures are specified in SI text, Figure S1, and Tables S3-S4).
Several limitations made it impossible to simply plug these 74 scales into a new questionnaire. Very few existing scales (N = 8) focus on associations between gender and health [24 (link)–28 (link)]. The eligible gender-related scales are generally restricted to either men or women and assess either masculinity [29 (link)] or femininity [30 (link), 31 (link)] or both as unipolar or bipolar constructs [12 (link), 32 –38 ] (e.g., hyper-masculinity or hyper-femininity) [26 (link), 28 (link), 39 –49 (link)]. Further, most scales rely on “agree-disagree” ratings, making them susceptible to acquiescence bias [50 (link)].