Dimensions of Masculine Norms, Depression, and Mental Health Service Utilization: Results From a Prospective Cohort Study Among Emerging Adult Men in the United States

Sileo, Katelyn M.; Kershaw, Trace

doi:10.1177/1557988320906980

Cited by 36 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Yousaf and colleagues [38] further showed a negative correlation indicating that higher AtTMRN is associated with worse attitudes toward seeking psychological help in men but not women. Further research based on male samples showed associations between AtTMRN and psychological help-seeking intentions [39], attitudes towards seeking psychological help [40], a willingness to seek help for mental health issues [41], and a reduced frequency of mental health service visits [42].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…This line of research supports the perspective that the internalization of male role norms (e.g., the need to be self-reliant) presents one major reason hindering men to engage in psychotherapy. However, a limitation of previous studies is that only the attitude or intention to start psychotherapy was measured but not the actual psychotherapy use [40][41][42]. Additionally, most of the studies investigated college student samples and did not sufficiently include individuals with psychological distress or control for it, suggesting the limited generalizability of previous studies to the population of psychologically distressed individuals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Men’s Psychotherapy Use, Male Role Norms, and Male-Typical Depression Symptoms: Examining 716 Men and Women Experiencing Psychological Distress

Eggenberger

Fordschmid

Ludwig

et al. 2021

Behavioral Sciences

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Men as compared to women are half as often affected by depressive and anxiety disorders and seek significantly less help for mental health issues than women. Adherence to traditional male role norms (AtTMRN) may hinder men from describing prototypical depression symptoms and from seeking psychotherapy. The current study compared whether AtTMRN, gender role identity, or the experience of prototypical or male-typical externalizing mental health symptoms were associated with psychotherapy use in men and women. In an anonymous online survey, 716 participants (37% men) reporting to currently experience psychological distress were examined. Information was obtained on psychotherapy use, depression and anxiety symptoms, gender role identity, and traditional male role norms. Although experiencing similar levels of depression, men compared to women showed a reduction in psychotherapy use by 29%. Masculine role identity was directly associated with reduced psychotherapy use in men (β = −0.41, p = 0.029), whereas AtTMRN was not (men: β = −0.04, p = 0.818; women: β = −0.25, p = 0.064). Higher externalizing depression symptomatology (β = −0.68, p = 0.005), but not prototypical depression symptomatology (β = −0.02, p = 0.499), was associated with reduced psychotherapy use in men but not women (p > 0.05). Interactions revealed that men, but not women, with high AtTMRN use psychotherapy only when exhibiting elevated symptom levels. The results corroborate previous reports showing reduced psychotherapy use in men as compared to women and identify elevated masculine role identity and male-typical externalizing depression symptomatology as direct factors associated with reduced psychotherapy use in psychologically distressed men. AtTMRN interacts with mental health symptoms to predict psychotherapy use, indicating that men with high AtTMRN only use psychotherapy when exhibiting high symptomatology.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Men’s Psychotherapy Use, Male Role Norms, and Male-Typical Depression Symptoms: Examining 716 Men and Women Experiencing Psychological Distress

Eggenberger

Fordschmid

Ludwig

et al. 2021

Behavioral Sciences

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“…Traditional masculinity is mostly associated with negative health behaviours ( Addis & Mahalik, 2003 ; Courtenay, 2000 , 2011 ; Springer & Mouzon, 2011 ). However, emerging studies have explored the potential for the endorsement of some masculine norms to predict positive health behaviours such as increased use of mental health services and preventative self-care ( Levant et al, 2011 ; Salgado et al, 2019 ; Sileo & Kershaw, 2020 ). When exploring whether theoretical positive masculinity constructs are more broadly socially accepted and enacted, McDermott et al (2019) found some traditional masculine ideals usually captured as negative traits can to a degree be associated with socially acceptable responses or positive behaviours, such as being successful in one's job.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Masculinity and men's health service use across four social generations: Findings from Australia's Ten to Men study

McGraw

White

Russell‐Bennett

2021

SSM - Population Health

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There is a perception that traditional masculine ideals, usually thought deleterious for men's health outcomes, are no longer as relevant for younger social generations such as Millennials as they are for older social generations such as Baby Boomers. Yet, in Australia, there remains a disparity between younger men's and women's health outcomes and use of health services. Conformity to traditional masculinity is often cited as a barrier to men's positive health behaviours but conceptualisation of the construct is contested. We analysed a selected secondary dataset ( n = 14,917) of Australian males aged between 15 and 55 years from Ten to Men: The Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health. We examined the role of conformity to traditional masculine norms in predicting likelihood of regular primary and preventative health services use for different social generations. Analyses included mediated regression and adjusted logistic regression. Conformity to ten of the eleven specific traditional masculine norms predicted likelihood of increased or decreased regular health service use depending on the generation and health service type. Specific traditional masculine norms play a complex role in men's use of distinct health service types for different generations of Australian males. Practitioners wishing to increase men's engagement with health services should consider gender-sensitive approaches that leverage specific masculine norms relevant to the age cohort to drive positive outcomes in men's health.

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“…Participants attending interventions 1 and 2 had signi cantly lower total conformity to masculine norms, power over women, and heterosexual self-preservation than expected for this population group. Indeed, these maladaptive masculine traits are barriers to help-seeking as total conformity to masculine norms negatively in uence help-seeking attitudes [14,15,19,20], power over women contributes to worse mental health outcomes [24], and greater heterosexual self-preservation can be seen as a dimension of antifemininity contributing to greater help-seeking reluctance [21]. Additionally, winning was signi cantly higher for participants in intervention 2 which can be considered as an adaptive trait as it has been shown to encourage help-seeking and act as a protective factor from mental health di culties [25].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Mental Health Help-Seeking Amongst Male University Students: A Series of Gender-Sensitive Mental Health Pilot Interventions.

Sagar-Ouriaghli

Godfrey

Tailor

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background: Up to a third of students experience a common mental health condition which is associated with decreased academic functioning and an increased risk of dropping out. While the prevalence of common mental health difficulties is lower amongst male students, worryingly, they are twice as likely to die by suicide. The importance of developing interventions that are gender-sensitive for male students to improve their uptake of mental health initiatives has been recently emphasised. However, acceptable, feasible and effective methods for male students are unexplored. The current study conducted three gender-sensitive pilot interventions for male students to evaluate acceptability (including uptake), changes to help-seeking and mental health status.Methods:Three gender-sensitive interventions were delivered to 24 male students. The interventions consisted of: Intervention 1 – a formal mental health intervention targeting male students (“psycho-educational model”), Intervention 2 - a second formal intervention that adopted more gender-sensitive language and promoted positive masculine traits (“positive masculinity model”), and Intervention 3 - an informal drop-in offering a social space for male students to receive general health information and connect with other students (“informal drop-in Man Cave model”). These were evaluated for acceptability (including uptake), attitudes to help-seeking and mental health outcomes.Results:In terms of acceptability, Intervention 3 - the informal drop-in (Man Cave) appeared better at engaging male students who have greater conformity to maladaptive masculine traits, more negative attitudes to help-seeking, higher levels of self-stigma, who were less likely to have used mental health support before and belonged to an ethnic minority. No significant changes to help-seeking attitudes, behaviours, or mental health status were observed across the interventions at feasibility stage. All interventions were deemed equally acceptable with minimal opportunity costs and perceived burden. Conclusions:These findings indicate differences in acceptability, particularly uptake, for male students who may be seen as more difficult to engage. Using informal strategies may help reach male students who would otherwise not engage with mental health support, familiarise them with the idea of help-seeking, and connect them with pre-existing mental health interventions. While no differences in outcomes measured were found in these small studies, more work needs to be carried out using larger samples to investigate the efficacy of informal interventions to engage male students.

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Dimensions of Masculine Norms, Depression, and Mental Health Service Utilization: Results From a Prospective Cohort Study Among Emerging Adult Men in the United States

Cited by 36 publications

References 66 publications

Men’s Psychotherapy Use, Male Role Norms, and Male-Typical Depression Symptoms: Examining 716 Men and Women Experiencing Psychological Distress

Men’s Psychotherapy Use, Male Role Norms, and Male-Typical Depression Symptoms: Examining 716 Men and Women Experiencing Psychological Distress

Masculinity and men's health service use across four social generations: Findings from Australia's Ten to Men study

Improving Mental Health Help-Seeking Amongst Male University Students: A Series of Gender-Sensitive Mental Health Pilot Interventions.

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