Page 58 - IJPS-9-2

International Journal of
Population Studies Personality traits in homosexual men in Iran

four groups, taking into account the sample sizes of the and Paranoia scales (p < 0.05), with homosexual men
subgroups and the homogeneity of variances. achieving the highest mean scores. The effect size for the
Hypochondria scale was found be the largest, suggesting
3. Results that only 4% of the observed difference in statistical

Data collected from 332 participants were analyzed. population can be attributed to this scale. In the following
Table 1 shows the frequency distribution and percentage of discussion, we further analyzed the data by breaking down
sexual orientation regarding gender. homosexual men into three subgroups based on their sex
roles and compared each subgroup with heterosexuals. The
Females, transsexuals, and male bisexuals who self- mean and standard deviation of the personality traits for
reported were excluded based on the exclusion criteria. each study group are presented in Table 4.
Among the 208 homosexual male participants, 3.3% were
excluded due to being younger than 21 years old, and Levene’s test was used to compare the homogeneity
1.9% were excluded as bisexuals based on their responses of variance among the MMPI dimensions. Based on
to the items related to romantic affairs. As a result, only the F-value obtained from this test, the variance of the
49 heterosexual men and 197 homosexual men were following scales was not significant (p > 0.05): Lie (0.87),
selected for the next level of examination. Among the 197 infrequency (2.07), hypochondriasis (1.85), depression
homosexual men, 30 (15.2%) identified as tops, 36 (18.3%) (2.05), hysteria (0.01), paranoia (0.75), psychasthenia
as bottoms, and 131 (66.5%) as versatile. Table 2 shows the (1.17), schizophrenia (1.21), and hypomania (0.86). In
frequency distribution of age and marital status by sexual other words, these groups had a homogeneous variance
orientation and sex role groups. in these dimensions, whereas Levene’s F was significant
for correction (16.91) and psychopathic deviation (2.99).
Initially, we compared heterosexual and homosexual Allen & Bennett (2008) recommended that if one or
men to determine if there were any significant differences more components of dependent variables did not meet
between them. In addition, age was controlled by including the variance homogeneity assumption, it would be better
it as a covariate in MANCOVA (Table 3). to use a more stringent alpha or significance level, such
Table 3 shows significant differences between as 0.001, instead of 0.05. Therefore, the significance level
heterosexual and homosexual men in terms of Infrequency, of the F-test was adjusted in line with Allen & Bennett’s
Correction, Hypochondriasis, Depression, Hysteria, recommendation (2008).

Table 1. Frequency distribution and percentage of sexual orientation by the gender of participants (n=332)
Groups Male Female Transgender
Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
Heterosexual 49 16.4 24 88.8 - -
Homosexual 208 69.79 1 3.7 7 100
Bisexual 41 13.7 2 7.4 - -

Table 2. Frequency distribution of groups’ age and marital status by sexual orientation and role
Groups Homosexual Heterosexual
Top Bottom Versatile
Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
Age
21–30 13 43.3 27 75 83 63.4 15 30.6
31–40 10 33.3 8 22.2 41 31.3 13 26.5
41–50 7 23.3 1 2.8 5 3.8 20 40.8
51–60 - - - - 2 1.5 1 2
Marital status
Single 27 90 35 97.2 118 90.1 27 55.1
Married 2 6.7 1 2.8 9 6.9 19 38.8
Divorced 1 3.3 - - 4 3.1 3 6.1

Volume 9 Issue 2 (2023) 52 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.0390