The Attitudes of Men and Women concerning Gender Differences in Grief

Versalle, Alexis; McDowell, Eugene E.

doi:10.2190/r2tj-6m4f-rhgd-c2md

Cited by 29 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…While a minority of men talked about the tears that accompanied their sadness, most men spoke of the act of crying, particularly in a public outpouring of grief, as a feminine activity that would be seen as unacceptable or as signifying weakness to their friends. It is evident in the literature that women as well conceive of crying as feminised ( Archer,1999 ; Martin & Doka, 2000 ; Versalle & McDowell, 2004–2005 ). This gender policing of grief, the social dictate to “man up”, has consequences for men.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

After the death of a friend: Young Men's grief and masculine identities

Creighton

Oliffe

Butterwick³

et al. 2013

Social Science & Medicine

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Young men can have an uncomfortable relationship with grief. Socially constructed masculine ideals dictate that men be stoic in the aftermath of loss, most often expressing their sadness and despair as anger. Perhaps because of alignment to such masculine ideals little research has been done to explore young men’s grief – and chronicle the ways they think about loss, their responses and how they go about describing their identities after a tragic event. Using qualitative individual interviews and photo elicitation methods, we investigated the ways in which 25 men aged 19–25 grieved the accidental death of a male friend. The study was conducted from April 2010–December 2011. Causes of death were diverse, and included motor vehicle accidents, adventure sports, drug overdose and fights. The findings revealed men’s predominant grief responses as emptiness, anger, stoicism and sentimentality. Participants’ description of their grief responses illustrated the ways in which they struggled to reconcile feelings of vulnerability and manly ideals of strength and stoicism. We gained insight into men’s grief practices by looking at the ways in which they aligned themselves with a post-loss masculine identity. These identities, which included the adventurer, father-figure and the lamplighter, revealed gender-specific processes through which men understood and actively dealt with their tragic loss. The results offer novel insights to men’s grief and identity work that may serve to affirm other men’s experiences as well as guide counselling services targeted to young men.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

After the death of a friend: Young Men's grief and masculine identities

Creighton

Oliffe

Butterwick³

et al. 2013

Social Science & Medicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Targeting primarily attitudes towards non-pathological grief, Versalle and McDowell [33] found no differences in sympathy for male vs. female grievers. Logan, Thornton, Kane and Breen [34] also reported no effect of gender on likeability of the bereaved, blame attributions and behavioral intentions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Public stigma towards prolonged grief disorder: Does diagnostic labeling matter?

et al. 2020

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The recent introduction of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) as a diagnostic category may cause negative social reactions (i.e. public stigma). Vignette experiments demonstrate that persons with both PGD symptoms and a PGD diagnosis elicit more public stigma than persons who experience integrated grief. However, the strength of the influence of the diagnosis itself remains unclear: We aimed to clarify if the diagnostic label PGD produces additional public stigma beyond PGD symptoms. We further compared whether public stigma varies between the label PGD and the label major depressive episode (MDE) (when PGD symptoms are present) and if gender of the bereaved person influences public stigma or moderates the aforementioned effects. Eight-hundred fifty-two participants (77% female; M age = 32.6 years, SD = 13.3) were randomly assigned to read online one of eight vignettes describing either a bereaved male or female, with PGD symptoms and PGD diagnosis; PGD symptoms and MDE diagnosis; PGD symptoms and no diagnosis, or no PGD symptoms and no diagnosis (i.e., integrated grief). Following the vignettes, participants indicated which negative characteristics they ascribed to the person, their emotional reactions, and preferred social distance from the person. People with PGD symptoms and PGD (or MDE) diagnosis were attributed more negative characteristics, and elicited more negative emotions and a stronger desire for social distance than people with integrated grief. However, public stigma did not differ for people with both PGD symptoms and diagnosis compared to people only experiencing PGD symptoms. Gender of the bereaved only had an influence on desired social distance, which was larger towards men. Helping severely distressed bereaved people (regardless of diagnostic status) cope with negative social reactions may help them adapt to bereavement. Results demonstrate that the experience of severe grief reactions, yet not a diagnostic label per se, causes public stigma.

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“…It is apparent that many of the factors that influence the trajectory of grief also influence normative beliefs and expectations that others have of bereaved people. For instance, men and women are accorded the same level of appropriateness when they exhibit similar grieving behavior (Versalle & McDowell, 2005); however, people are more willing to interact with bereaved women than men (as measured by preferred social distance; Kubitz, Thornton, & Robertson, 1989). This contradiction suggests that judgments of appropriateness of another person's behavior and subsequent behavioral intentions toward that person might be influenced by different mechanisms.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%