Austrian male patients’ gender role conflict is associated with their wish for interpersonal violence to be addressed during patient-physician conversations: a questionnaire study

Abstract

Background: Experiencing interpersonal violence and disclosing this experience to physicians can be associated with fear, shame, denial or emotional turmoil. Expressions of such feelings additionally conflict with masculine gender role ideologies and may be experienced as masculine gender role conflict. Masculine gender role conflict is often associated with men's unwillingness to seek professional help. The current study analyzed the association between masculine gender role conflict and men's wish for patient-physician conversations to include questions about interpersonal violence they might have experienced. Methods: In structured closed-ended interviews conducted at an Austrian hospital 129 male patients (M age = 59.4, SD = 14.7) were asked what forms of interpersonal violence they had experienced. Additionally, a study-specific questionnaire was used to find out whether male patients wanted future physician-patient conversations to include questions about interpersonal violence they might have experienced. Men's gender role conflict was assessed with the Gender Role Conflict Scale-Short Form. Results: Half of the male patients (50%) reported having experienced at least one form of interpersonal violence. Nearly half of the men (48%) wanted their physician to ask them in future about any violence they might have experienced. One pattern of gender role conflict was positively associated with men's wish to be asked in patientphysician conversations about potential interpersonal violence. Namely, men who reported conflicts between work and family relations were more likely to state that they wanted such conversations (OR = 1.6, 95%CI = 1.1-2.4) than were men who did not often experience this pattern of gender role conflict.

Association between psychotherapy use, sexual orientation, and traditional masculinity among psychologically distressed men.

“…Similarly, recent reports also suggest that there may be no or even beneficiary relations between individual masculine norms and negative mental health outcomes, such as depression symptoms (Lin et al, 2021;Van Doorn et al, 2021). Concordantly, a recent study from Austria examining 129 men found that stronger GRC experienced due to work-family conflicts was associated with a greater desire to address the topic of interpersonal violence during patient-physician conversations (Komlenac et al, 2020). Such This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.…”

Not Always a “Buffer”: Self-Compassion as Moderator of the Link Between Masculinity Ideologies and Help-Seeking Intentions After Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence

“…Healthcare practitioners may try to use their patients’ CMI to best advantage by reframing the healthcare situations in a way that promotes self-management, empowerment, accountability, and autonomy throughout treatment. In such healthcare settings, patients who strongly conform to masculinity ideologies might be able to utilize healthcare offers after experiencing IPV, whereas at the same time being able to maintain their sense of masculinity ( Komlenac et al, 2020 ; Seidler et al, 2018 ).…”