Latino men experience health disparities in STI/HIV, diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. Gender roles likely play a role in risk behaviors and outcomes; however, there has been little focus on masculinity in Latino men. We conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with Latino men living in North Carolina. The interviews, conducted by a trained bilingual/bicultural Latino male, prompted discussion around work, family, and stress. Four themes were identified: masculine roles of being a family provider and protector, sources of stress, family responsibility and interconnectedness to health, and coping mechanism. For Latino men, masculinity may have both positive and negative influences on health. For example, the role of family provider may contribute to coping and be a stressor simultaneously. Future research should examine masculinity as a positive and a negative health influence and the additional impacts of gender roles on mens' health.
The effect of social networks operate differently for African American men with diabetes compared to non-Latino white men. Identifying racial differences in the influence of social networks on health will assist in developing interventions that may help to decrease gender and race gaps in health for men with diabetes.
The purpose of this article is to consider adult men’s retrospective constructions of mothering and growing up in father-absent households. An exploratory qualitative design using semi-structured interviews was utilised and interviews were conducted with 21 adult men. Collected data were transcribed verbatim and subject to thematic analysis. Findings revealed memories of loss and missed opportunities, poverty and disadvantage. Men recollected their mothers attempting to balance their physical and financial security with their emotional needs. Findings from this study suggest that men who experience father absence from an early age can experience an ongoing sense of loss and disadvantage that may be carried throughout life. We recommend this population of men be provided with opportunities to disclose feelings about their experiences as father-absent boys when coming into contact with health and social services.
Guided by the social support framework, this article identifies types of support sought and received by combat veterans with PTSD in an online forum. We conducted a thematic analysis of 466 posts by 63 military personnel and partners to identify types and frequencies of social support. Findings are partially consistent with previous investigations of support groups. The most common type of support was informational support, followed by network/community support, and idiosyncratic types of support. However, emotional support was not featured as prominently in comparison to support groups reported on in past research. In addition, our analysis identified concern for forum members and conflict/resolution as two new social support sub-categories. Selective coding revealed three broad themes of social support in the PTSD forum: stigma, group identification, and embracing conflict. We discuss implications and directions for future research using the social support framework.
The importance of attitudes in explaining the gap between knowledge and behavior in sexual practices has been the focus of the global reproductive health research agenda for the last two decades. However little has been done to uncover the role of masculinity ideologies in assessing sexual risk-taking in the Caribbean. The association between two dimensions of masculinity based on a new macho scale, selected socio-demographic characteristics and inconsistent condom use within different conjugal arrangements was assessed using data from the 2008 Jamaica Reproductive Health Survey. This included 1,764 sexually active men aged 15–24. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the Macho Scale consistently predicted inconsistent condom use with a non-steady partner and a steady partner. While dominance/ virility placed men at risk with both types of partners, procreative desire was not significantly associated with the avoidance of condom use. Future reproductive health programs for young men should focus more directly on factors shaping male identity that are linked to risky behaviors.
Programs that engage men to promote gender equity, referred to as “gender-transformative programs”, improve men’s health behaviors. No studies have examined how such programs may influence the everyday behaviors of men who are implementing these programs among youth. An in-depth interview study was conducted with the female partners and kin of male cricket coaches in urban India who were trained to deliver a gender violence prevention program for young male cricket athletes. Women noted multiple changes among these men including increased time spent on housework and child care, improved interpersonal communication, attention to women’s desires and needs, and less aggression. Gender-transformative programs intended for youth may have unanticipated, positive consequences for the implementers of these programs.
This article presents results of a study on sexual negotiation among a group of South African men living with HIV, in order to determine the impact of HIV diagnosis and illness on their constructions of masculinity. Drawing on interviews conducted with 25 men living with HIV, findings illustrate the significant role played by partners of HIV-positive men in determining the outcome of sexual negotiations. They furthermore demonstrate the transformative power of HIV diagnosis in shifting men’s construction of masculinity and related sexual attitudes, as well as behaviour. Ambiguities and contradictions inherent in narratives of masculine transformation are highlighted. While the majority of participants embraced a discourse stressing openness about sex, following their HIV diagnosis, they were intolerant of women who demanded regular sex. The study yields significant findings of use in efforts to strengthen HIV programmes for men in South Africa and beyond.
Experimental studies have shown that exposure to media-based idealized images can negatively influence men’s state body satisfaction. However, it is unclear whether these findings are replicable for realistic viewing patterns. As such, this study compared the effects of concentrated and realistic streams of music video clips (MVCs) on men’s body satisfaction, mood, and social comparison. Men (N = 103) were randomly assigned to view a set of MVCs containing a 3-minute continuous stream of muscular and attractive male singers (concentrated condition) or the same 3-minute stream interspersed with other types of clips (singers of average-appearance and scenery; realistic condition). Compared to participants who viewed clips containing only scenery, men in both the realistic and concentrated conditions had significantly poorer body satisfaction, fitness satisfaction, and upper body satisfaction. There were no differences between the realistic and concentration conditions suggesting that mere exposure to muscular and attractive singers is enough to produce negative effects, regardless of presentation style.
Recreational anabolic-androgenic steroid (AAS) use has become a world-wide public health concern, however there is currently no published literature pertaining to its use in Kuwait. Therefore, the goal of this preliminary study was to determine the lifetime prevalence of AAS use among gym users in Kuwait. A logistic regression was also used to assess whether age, nationality, smoking, and discrepancies between ideal and perceived body image predicted AAS use among men. Participants were recruited from 6 gyms in Kuwait. Among the 200 individuals (86.5% male, 13.5% female) who participated, 35% reported AAS use. Only one female reported AAS use. When limiting the sample to Kuwaiti males between the ages of 18 and 30, the prevalence rose to 59.1%. Lower age, being Kuwaiti, smoking, and placing high importance on muscle tone and definition were all significant predictors of AAS use. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are also discussed.
We assessed the risk profile of young men who attended family planning clinics and tested positive for HIV. A retrospective chart review was conducted comparing risk-related behaviors of men who tested positive for HIV and men who tested negative for HIV. This included measures of sexual partnering, illicit drug use, history of incarceration, and history of forced sex. The study included 92 men ages 18–23 years. Findings suggest young minority men who have sex with men engage in multiple risk-related behaviors that increase the likelihood for HIV acquisition. As young men access family planning clinics, more effective interventions are needed in these settings to address their specific needs.
This study explores men’s experiences of weight stigma with a sample of men attending a weight management programme. Men’s understanding of stigma, including its sources, their responses to it, and its impact, were discussed using focus groups. Findings from a thematic analysis indicate that weight stigma undermines men’s masculine sense of self. Weight stigma becomes a social threat – real or imagined - that entails negative psychosocial outcomes, impeding men’s participation in social activities, including weight loss. With adequate social support, a men-only weight management programme is perceived as a safe environment where the men recovered their impaired self-concept. We suggest that weight stigma should be considered in the design of men’s weight management interventions, to generate a more compassionate approach to weight loss.
A History of Male Psychological Disorders in Britain, 1945-1980, by Alison Haggett. Mental Health in Historical Perspective. Basingstoke: Palgrave McMillan, 2015. 215 pp. ISBN 9781137448873 (hb) 9781137448880 (e-bk). Open access via https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057/9781137448880.pdfstiff upper lip. Clarified in the framework of socio-medical histories, this is the portrait of a well-informed critique on British psychological disorders, rooted in the cultural context of the 1950s through to the 1980s. Beyond addressing men's mental health, Alison Haggett is adept in reading diverse controversial aspects of British modern life in the aftermath of the First and Second World Wars while re-telling unequivocal consequences of the industrial revolution. In so doing, she has successfully pulled together philosophical, medical, and psychological theories alongside clinicians' objective summaries of certain case works-even after their retirement. Built upon this comprehensive array of cross-disciplinary approaches to men's mental health in Britain by touching on various archival material, Haggett is perhaps too impatient to inform us about the cultural forces that have kept the public (both patients and GPs) misreading the symptoms. Historically, the socio-cultural dimension of British manners has meant that we cannot fully explain why we know so little about men's psychological disorders. Engaging with this seminal argument, Haggett's evaluation of British masculinity attends to two oppositions of deconstruction and disowning of manliness, rectifying what many medical historians have already ignored. And, unsurprisingly, there is much discussion of embodied pain and somatisation towards the end of Haggett's consistent and coherent evaluation.With a current 75 percent of suicides in Britain occurring among men (Haggett, pp. 2, 50), our normative ideals of singular and hegemonic masculinity are severely threatened if not already wrecked. On the one hand, the merciless post-war competitiveness of industrial work remains to be one persisting factor that has never been fully questioned, particularly concerning its irretrievably destructive outcomes for public health. On the other, feminism- despite facilitating women's access to certain work-related privileges previously only granted to men-has not resolved women's and men's ever-increasing need for psychological support and medical intervention. While women have historically presented to GPs with mood and neurotic disorders, skin complaints, and have been unashamedly concerned about male family members, their medical narratives have been predominantly read in terms of feminine irrationality. Men, by contrast, present with physical symptoms for which Haggett allocates a major part of this refreshing take on male psychological disorders. While a clandestine portraiture of male mental issues is crammed in GPs' numerous records of peptic ulcers, epigastric pain, dyspepsia, and asthma, many medical students graduate by endorsing physically-oriented approaches which may be exacerbated not only by their medical training of professional emotional detachment, but also further reinforced by our cultural demand for concealing emotions in Britain.Haggett argues-more explicitly than I have ever encountered among historians-that there is a clear link connecting the British class system, social norms, medical theories, GP training and prescription patterns, prevalence of depression since the 1970s, and alcohol abuse among both male patients and male physicians. This unfortunate complex lineage of anxiety and concealment has rendered British men helpless in their dysthymic representation, so much so that today somatisation overrules any scientific furthering of Charcot's and Freud's developments in neurasthenia and male hysteria. However, Haggett's analysis stands short of reading the medicalization of emotions for men and women by way of statistical comparisons.At the turn of the century, the WHO Guide to Mental Health in Primary Care (WHO, 2000) showcased the extent to which women are more prescribed with SSRIs than men while women's alcohol intake remains relatively lower. …
Conceiving Masculinity: Male Infertility, Medicine and Identity, by Liberty Walther Barnes. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2014. 228 pp. ISBN: 978-1-43991042-9 (pb)Conceiving Masculinity is an overdue addition to the exploration and understanding of male (in)fertility, reproduction and masculinity. In this book, Barnes seeks to explore the experience of male infertility from the dual context of the medical profession and couples who are experiencing male factor fertility issues. This exploration takes place within the U.S., and as Barnes notes the research is focused on the experiences of White heterosexual men within stable intimate relationships. Barnes positions her work sociologically, drawing on theories of systems in the work of Ridgeway and Correll (2004), suggesting that case of male infertility illuminates some of the intricacies of the system and the durability of ideology (p. 164). The book speaks of important topics relating to men's health, men's interactions with the medical profession and the gendered positions that may exist within reproductive health. This text will therefore be of interest to those working in, as well as students of, health science, sociology and psychology, particularly those interested in and health.The prologue of the book situates the work reflexively, outlining the experience of the author and her husband in attempting to become parents for the first time. The personal, almost chatty writing style of these reflections continues throughout the book, offering the book more mainstream style and tone than some academic work, which may be particularly appealing to students. The book is structured into six chapters, with data from Barnes' research woven through these chapters. The aim of the book is twofold; first, to explore the medical and scientific landscape of male infertility; and second, to examine the views of men who themselves are experiencing infertility. Collectively the author positions this approach as providing a helpful case study for exploring the relationship between disease and gender (p. 2). The data comprise of qualitative telephone interviews with men with infertility and their wives (N = 24), sampled from five clinical settings, as well as observations at the five clinics, and interviews with medical professionals.Chapter 1 of the book provides the overview, introduction and rationale for the book, situating the study and defining the key elements of gender, masculinity, and infertility. Chapters 2 and 3 look at the data from the clinical settings, exploring male infertility medicine, both historically and in terms of how it is experienced in contemporary clinical settings, and how masculinity frames the way in which clinicians interact with male patients and reinforce infertility as female disease. Chapters 4 and 5 then engage with the participant interview data, exploring the men's and women's experiences of the infertility journey, unpacking how interrelates with the diagnoses and understanding of infertility for these men, the technologies they draw on to fix the issue of infertility, and how men narrate their experiences as, for instance, not compromising their masculinity. …
Parenthood is a life goal for most people. Existing research about childbearing focuses mostly on women. Little is known about men’s childbearing aspirations and the factors that influence them. The aim of this study was to investigate fertility-related knowledge and attitudes, and childbearing desires, expectations and outcomes among Australian men of reproductive age. A sample of 18–50-year-old men (N = 1,104), randomly selected from the 2013 Australian Electoral Roll, completed a selfadministered, anonymous questionnaire. Data were weighted to reduce non-response bias. Factors associated with fertility and childbearing were identified in multivariable analyses. Most respondents (90.0%) wanted at least two children and thought it was acceptable for men older than 50 years to be fathers (61.6%); they underestimated the effect of age on fertility and overestimated the ability of assisted reproductive technology to overcome age-related fertility decline. Targeted interventions to increase men’s knowledge of the limitations of fertility are recommended.
Research suggests that lay perspectives of health are both gendered and contextual. Studies on how laymen and -women in specific contexts and at specific times talk about health are hence important. This article approaches perceptions of health by rural middle-aged and elderly men of different educational levels and ethnic backgrounds in contemporary Norway through a series of 18 interviews. The men talked about health in terms wellbeing and the good life, achievable through experiencing good functionality, absence of illness and pain, good relations with family and friends, belonging to the community, and satisfactory body shape and weight. Findings are discussed with reference to Bourdieu’s concept of capital and Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity.
Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing has become a common practice in health care and has resulted in substantially increased number of prostate cancer diagnoses in many countries. In the UK, the incidence of prostate cancer rose three-fold after the introduction of the PSA test, between 1986 and 2005 (Welch & Albertsen, 2009). Although a screen-detected cancer is frequently of questionable clinical relevance, and associated with very little to no excess mortality, the diagnosis causes anxiety and distress, and the side effects of radical treatment interfere with quality of life (Klotz, 2012). Radical treatments (surgical removal of the prostate gland, radiation and hormonal therapies) have common long-term side effects such as erectile, urinary and bowel dysfunctions, and a lack of sexual desire. Research on quality of life after treatment has shown no major differences between various forms of treatment (Hayes et al., 2010).Urinary dysfunctions cause significant difficulties for men in their social environments, for instance at work (Grunfeld et al., 2013), and erectile dysfunctions in particular make many men fear losing their masculinity (Chapple & Ziebland, 2002; Oliffe, 2004), which is why men become increasingly aware of their gendered embodiment after a prostate cancer diagnosis (Broom, 2004; Hagen, Grant-Kalischuk & Sanders, 2007). Treatment procedures bring significant difficulties especially for those men who desire to perform idealised constructions of masculinity, such as (hetero-) sexual penetration (Arrington, 2008; Broom, 2004). In addition to physical outcomes, with its stigmatising effects cancer also causes shame and fear of social exclusion (Else-Quest et al., 2009; Gray et al., 2000).Although early detection of prostate cancer has reduced mortality (Schroder et al., 2012), the benefits of screening are considered minor in comparison to the harms of over-treating low-risk cancers (Hayes & Barry, 2014). Therefore, active surveillance has been recommended as the primary treatment choice for patients with low-risk prostate cancer for reducing health care costs and preventing the side effects of unnecessary treatments (Bastian et al., 2009; Cooperberg, Carroll & Klotz, 2011). Yet many men prefer radical treatments, even when there is no immediate medical reason for this, and without a doctor's recommendation (Klotz et al., 2010). Out of men diagnosed with a low-risk cancer, 60 percent have undergone radical treatment in the UK and 70-90 percent in the U.S. (Cooperberg et al., 2004).From a medical perspective, choosing radical treatment for a low-risk cancer may look irrational, particularly due to the known substantial risk of having serious side effects. Previous research on men's decision-making on prostate cancer treatments has shown that most men want to do something about their cancer, and therefore many of them prefer radical treatments (Chapple & Ziebland, 2002). It has been revealed that the most important reason for choosing prostatectomy is the belief in surgery as the most effective procedure (Anandadas et al., 2010; O'Rourke, 2007). For men, the active nature of surgery produces a greater sense of control, security and confidence than alternative treatments (Eilat-Tsanani et al., 2013, p. 156). Choosing radical treatment seems to follow culturally dominant ideals of masculinity, masculine scripts (Burns & Mahalik, 2008), underlining action, strength, self-reliance and control. There is evidence that, despite the potential benefits of active surveillance, men see it as doing nothing, and therefore dismiss it as a choice (Mroz, Oliffe & Davison, 2013). This view raises a question on how active surveillance is perceived in terms of masculinity ideals. How are various treatment choices interpreted and justified in terms of the cultural perceptions of masculinity?MASCULINE IDEALS IN MEN'S JUSTIFICATIONS OF THEIR HEALTH CARE UTILISATION AND TREATMENT CHOICESIn the research on men's help-seeking, it has long been assumed that the normative ideals of hegemonic masculinity play an important role in men's underutilisation of health care services and treatment seeking delays. …
The majority of qualitative research relating to men’s experiences of mental health problems has been published within the last 15 years. Building on a previously published review, we conducted a qualitative metasynthesis of 26 studies on men’s perspectives of common mental health problems. Findings show the causes of problems cited by most men relate to work, family, relationships and the pressure of dominant notions of masculinity. Many men struggle to recognize when a problem exists despite experiencing significant emotional pain. The complex relationships between masculinity and common mental health problems are evident in men’s accounts of coping and seeking help. This metasynthesis emphasizes that despite increasing research on this topic there still remains a need to broaden the focus from depression, professional help-seeking, and the negative impact of hegemonic masculinity on mental health.
The aim of this small-scale exploratory study was to investigate young men’s understandings of male breast cancer. In-depth semi-structured interviews ranging between one to two hours were conducted with six English-speaking men aged 18–35, recruited through opportunity sampling. Inductive thematic analysis revealed four key themes: association of breast cancer with femininity, reluctance to disclose breast cancer/visit the GP, body image concerns associated with breast cancer and treatment, and gendered identity and disclosure of a breast cancer diagnosis. Men were reluctant to wear a pink ribbon but would be proud to sport a mastectomy scar perceived as a “war wound”. Findings are discussed in relation to the possible psychological and social hurdles facing men diagnosed with breast cancer, and implications for encouraging men to refer to general practice when appropriate.
The writing and research on male health has demonstrably two distinct strands, one clinical and another which we could call “social/behavioural”. These approaches are limited. The clinical/medical perspective has often had a somewhat narrow focus on prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction and other male-specific pathologies. The social/behavioural focus has tended to look at men’s health-damaging behaviour, often based on the sociology of masculinity. A fresh approach is presented here, one based on the large body of research on the social determinants of health as well as on a strength-based (salutogenic) approach to male health.
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic, unpredictable, autoimmune condition primarily affecting women. In the current study eight British men recruited through a support organisation, with established SLE, aged 20 to 69 years and from various ethnic backgrounds, participated in individual semi-structured interviews. Data were recorded, transcribed and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. We draw on theorising around “marginalised masculinities” to explore how SLE affects the performance of masculinity in multiple contexts and threatens psychological well-being. Participants described the psychosocial consequences of struggling to fulfil expected obligations as workers, parents and sexual partners whilst navigating a way through interpersonal relationships where the legitimacy of their illness and coping was frequently contested. We argue that more focused, sex-specific strategies need to be developed both for individuals with SLE and those who care for them. Such interventions should serve to raise the profile of men with the condition and work towards enhancing their psychological well-being.
