Connecting Masculinity and Depression Among International Male University Students

Abstract

International university students can experience isolation amid academic pressures. Such circumstances can manifest as or exacerbate depression. This qualitative study involved 15 international male students at a Canadian university who were diagnosed or self-identified as having depression. Individual interviews revealed men's perspectives about causes, implications, and management of depression. Participants intertwined sex- and gender-based factors in detailing causes, and emphasized the potential for parents to impact depression. Implications of depression for embodying traditional masculine roles of breadwinner and career man influenced many men to filter details about their illness within "home" cultures. This practice often prevailed within Canada despite the men's perceptions that greater societal acceptance existed. Masculine ideals underpinned self-management strategies to fight depression and regain control. Counter to men's reluctance to disclose illness details were participants' self-management preference for peer-based support. Study findings highlight how masculine ideals and cultural constructs can influence depression experiences and expressions.

Men’s depression talk online: A qualitative analysis of accountability and authenticity in help-seeking and support formulations.

“…In contrast to much established research where 'masculinity' is explicitly used as a lens to understand men's interview-based accounts of depression and coping (e.g. Oliffe et al, 2010;Rochlen et al, 2010;Valkonen & Hänninen, 2013) , we did not assume that 'masculinity' would be a relevant or central concern for the men in our dataset. In the event traditional notions of 'masculinity' were referenced indirectly at times; for example, a lot of advice on the forum centred around selfmanagement and practical activities (e.g.…”

“…As a result, men enact multiple masculinities, with particular ones being treated as either locally hegemonic (dominant) or marginalised dependant on context (Connell, 2005;Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005), rather than consistently modelling themselves on a single idealised male prototype as might be traditionally supposed. From this perspective, qualitative studies have generally focused on health-defeating or 'maladaptive' male coping strategies linked to hegemonic masculinities, such as self-reliance (Emslie et al, 2006;Johnson et al, 2012;Sierra-Hernandez et al, 2014;), not expressing difficult emotions (Oliffe et al, 2010), and risk-taking avoidance behaviours such as excessive alcohol consumption .…”

Men's Views on Depression: A Systematic Review and Metasynthesis of Qualitative Research

“…Older men talked about (covert) feelings of shame because of an increased sensitivity which is assessed as conflicting with perceptions of themselves as males [48] . Associative links of "otherness" are closely related to men's perceptions of depression as a "female's disease" [21,27,30,34,44,49] . Based on beliefs about the "nature" of female connectedness to emotions as opposed to male behavior, some men assessed depression as "unmanly" and considered it more socially acceptable for women to be diagnosed with depression [21,27,44,49] .…”

“…Many studies addressed traditional masculine ideals, including expectations such as being strong, successful, self-reliant, in control and capable along with an emphasis on avoiding emotions [21][22][23][24][25][26][27] . Male gender norms were frequently described as a consequence of traditional masculine gender socialization [26][27][28][29][30] , and many respondents were aware of the adverse effects of these -often unrealistic -male role expectations and social pressures to perform well as family providers, fathers, partners or "good workers" on their mental health [22,26,27,[30][31][32][33][34][35] .…”

Engaging men with penile cancer in qualitative research: reflections from an interview-based study

“…Qualitative research, such as in-depth interviewing is being recognised as providing an ideal tool for exploring patient experience and the complexities of men's subjective lives (Hutchinson et al, 2002) and particularly apt when the topic being researched is of a sensitive nature (Elmir et al, 2011). The growing body of qualitative research focused around men's experiences of ill health would indicate, counter to many false assumptions, some men will talk about their ill health (see for example (Ervik and Asplund, 2012, Bullen et al, 2010, Oliffe et al, 2010 but, with the notable exception of Oliffe and Mróz's (2005) guidance paper, there is limited practical advice for researchers on how to engage men in qualitative research.…”