Key terms 

Patriarchy (Patriarchal view on masculinity): 

Definition: Patriarchy is the systematic domination by men of women and of other men. (Scott-Samuel. (2008). Patriarchy, masculinities and health inequalities. Gaceta sanitaria, 23(2), 159–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaceta.2008.11.007)

Generational: 

What generations? 

Baby Boomer: One who is considered a baby boomer individual was born between the years of 1946 and 1964. In 2022 these individuals fall between the ages of 58 and 76 (Dimock, 2019) 

Generation X: One who is considered a Generation X individual was born between the years of 1965 and 1980. In 2022 these individuals are between the ages of 42 and 57 (Dimock, 2019)

Millennial: One who is considered a millennial individual was born between the years of 1981 and 1996. In 2022 these individuals are between the ages of 26 and 41 (Dimock, 2019)

Generation Z: One who is considered a generation Z individual was born between the years of 1997 and 2012. These individuals are between the ages of 10 and 25(Dimock, 2019).

Help seeking: 

What counts as help seeking? 

The process of help seeking can be understood as an intentional action that starts with awareness, problem recognition, and definition → Cornally N., McCarthy G. (2011). Help-seeking behaviour: A concept analysis. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 17, 280-288.

searching for or requesting help from others via formal or informal mechanisms, such as through mental health services.

Formal: mental health service → health lines, doctor, mental health care plan, psychologist, therapist, counsellor, 

Men: 

Gender: By contrast, gender is associated with behaviour, lifestyle and life experience. (Regitz-Zagrosek. (2012). Sex and gender differences in health. Science & Society Series on Sex and Science. EMBO Reports, 13(7), 596–603. https://doi.org/10.1038/embor.2012.87)

Sex: Sex differences are based on biological factors. These include reproductive function, concentrations of sexual hormones, the expression of genes on X and Y chromosomes and their effects and the higher percentage of body fat in women (Regitz-Zagrosek. (2012). Sex and gender differences in health. Science & Society Series on Sex and Science. EMBO Reports, 13(7), 596–603. https://doi.org/10.1038/embor.2012.87)

Masculinity: 

Masculinity ideologies (MIs; i.e., beliefs about how men and boys are supposed to think, feel, and behave; Levant & Richmond, 2016)(McDermott et al., 2020)

Masculine ideology: Masculinity ideology refers to the internalisation of culturally defined standards or norms for males’ roles and behaviours (Levant, 1996; Pleck, Sonenstein, & Ku, 1993). Masculinity ideology encourages and constrains boys and men to conform to gender role norms by adopting certain socially sanctioned masculine behaviours as well as by avoiding proscribed behaviours (Levant, 1996). 

Western perspective: 

Indeed, researchers have identified that specific MIs rooted in hegemonic and traditional perspectives (i.e., based on historic White, heterosexual, and Eurocentric worldviews) about the relationships between men and women—are often referred to as traditional masculinity ideology (TMI; Levant, 2011; Pleck, 1995). MIs have been positively associated with more personal and relational problems (Gerdes, Alto, Jadaszewski, D’Auria, & Levant, 2018).(McDermott et al., 2020)

Given what we know of the massive scale of global sociocultural variation it is extraordinary that, despite this diversity, a relatively specific form of gender relations has for many years remained globally dominant. I am referring to the variant of masculinity which is characterised by generally agreed «negative» attributes such as toughness, aggressiveness, excessive risk-taking, suppression of emotions; «positive» attributes such as strength, protectiveness, decisiveness, courage: and more contested attributes like individualism, competitiveness, rationality, and «practicality».. (Scott-Samuel. (2008). Patriarchy, masculinities and health inequalities. Gaceta sanitaria, 23(2), 159–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaceta.2008.11.007)

Gender roles 

Certain characteristics, preferences and behaviours belonging to either the female or male gender according to one’s society. Gender roles and norms are constructed and emphasises by one’s environments and suggest to the individual what is expected and appropriate (Mahalik et al., 2013)

Background – what we already know 

 Literature Review & Past Studies 

Help seeking behaviour in men: 

DOI:10.3390/ijerph18147319: A Case Series Study of Help-Seeking among Younger and Older Men in Suicidal Crisis

Due to the continuing high suicide rates among young men, there is a need to understand help-seeking behaviour and engagement with tailored suicide prevention interventions. The aim of this study was to compare help-seeking among younger and older men who attended a therapeutic centre for men in a suicidal crisis. In this case series study, data were collected from 546 men who were referred into a community-based therapeutic service in North West England. Of the 546 men, 337 (52%) received therapy; 161 (48%) were aged between 18 and 30 years (mean age 24 years, SD = 3.4). Analyses included baseline differences, symptom trajectories for the CORE-34 Clinical Outcome Measure (CORE-OM), and engagement with the therapy. For the CORE-OM, there was a clinically significant reduction in mean scores between assessment and discharge (p < 0.001) for both younger and older men. At initial assessment, younger men were less affected b

Lavorgna. (2021). Exploring the Effects of Masculinity Norms on Attitudes Towards Help Seeking in Males: a Comparison Across Generations. ProQuest Dissertations Publi

Liddon, Kingerlee, R., & Barry, J. A. (2018). Gender differences in preferences for psychological treatment, coping strategies, and triggers to help‐seeking. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 57(1), 42–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjc.12147

although this difference was not significant after familywise correction. This ties in with the suggestion that men are more prone to alexithymia (reduced ability to identify and articulate feelings; Levant et al., 2006), which would possibly explain previous findings that men are more likely than women to seek help if prompted by a family member (Lemkey et al., 2015; Norcross et al., 1996; Russ et al., 2015), although this was not explicitly stated in the present study.

Stigma was commonly cited as a barrier to male help-seeking, and women as well as men indicated some awareness of the conflict between the societal expectation that men should be strong, and societal judgments that help-seeking is a sign of weakness. However, there was no significant difference related to in the impact of stigma on men compared to women, which does not support the finding of Clement et al. (2015) that stigma was more of a deterrent for men than women. Seager, Farrell, and Barry (2016) suggest that a way to overcome societal expectations of men could be to reframe help- seeking as something that a strong man does.

Participants (115 men and 232 women) were recruited via relevant websites and social media. The survey described therapies and asked participants how much they liked each. Their coping strategies and help-seeking behaviour were assessed too.

Age differences in help seeking in men: Parental consent (18+ due to ethical considerations and environments) 

Lavorgna. (2021). Exploring the Effects of Masculinity Norms on Attitudes Towards Help Seeking in Males: a Comparison Across Generations. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. 

 Brett, G. (2012). The stigma of mental illness: generational differences, help seeking behaviours and quality of life.

found that a male was high in conformity level was less likely to seek help in general. This study clearly shows masculinity as a motivator for help seeking attitudes. Younger men in this study reported this to a greater extent than older individuals within this study. Tsan, Day, Schwartz and Kimball (2011), looked at the factor of emotional restrictiveness, and gender role. They found that Gender roles have a key role in developing positive attitudes towards psychotherapy. They found that the personality trait, openness to experience, mediated the relationship between restrictive emotionality and attitudes toward psychotherapy. Zawawi (2011) found that the need for education is necessary for males in terms to help develop more positive attitudes towards help seeking, and perhaps that emphasising the negative consequences for not seeking help would be more effective when educating males about mental illness.

There were 136 participants in total for this study. For respecting the participant’s privacy, the ages were categorised into five distinct categories. These categories were as follows, sixteen to eighteen, nineteen to twenty five, twenty-six – forty, forty one to sixty and the sixty plus

Gender Differences 

Oliver, Pearson, N., Coe, N., & Gunnell, D. (2005). Help-seeking behaviour in men and women with common mental health problems: cross-sectional study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 186(4), 297–301. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.186.4.297 

Looking at gender differences, less reports for men due to stigmatisation 

Many people with mental health problems do not seek professional help but their use of other sources of help

is unclear.

Aims: To investigate patterns of lay and professional help-seeking in men and women aged16^64 years related to severity of symptoms and socio- demographic variables.

Method: Postal questionnaire survey, including the12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ ^12), sent to a stratified random sample (n1⁄415 222) of the population of Somerset.

Results: The response rate was 76%. Only 28 % of people with extremely high GHQ ^12 scores (58) had sought help from their general practitioner but most (78%) had sought some form of help. Males, young people and people living in affluent areas were the least likely to seek help.

Donne, DeLuca, J., Pleskach, P., Bromson, C., Mosley, M. P., Perez, E. T., Mathews, S. G., Stephenson, R., & Frye, V. (2018). Barriers to and Facilitators of Help-Seeking Behavior Among Men Who Experience Sexual Violence. American Journal of Men’s Health, 12(2), 189–201. https://doi.org/10.1177/1557988317740665

Societal expectations and gender norms influence how men respond to sexual violence victimization (Howard, Debnam, Wang, & Gilchrist, 2011). The legitimacy of male victims often focuses on physical harm as opposed to consent (Graham, 2006). Heterosexual men may be concerned about being labeled weak or gay (Sable, Danis, Mauzy, & Gallagher, 2006) and gay men may be afraid of homophobic responses from health-care providers and/or not being taken seriously by law enforcement (NCAVP, 2010)

Overall, barriers to help-seeking reported by partici- pants included social (traditional gender roles and norms), personal (shame, identity impacts), and practical (cost, fit) barriers to support service access, consistent with prior research (Braun, Schmidt, Gavey, & Fenaughty, 2009). 

The study is an exploratory one aimed at filling the gap in the literature and better understanding how men, both straight and gay as well as cisgender and transgender, conceptualize, understand, and seek help related to sexual violence. A sample of 32 men was recruited on-line and participated in either a one-on-one in-depth interview (N = 19) or one of two focus group discussions (N = 13). All interviews and groups were audiotaped, professionally transcribed and coded using NVivo 9 qualitative software. The present analysis focused on barriers to and facilitators of support service access(Braun, Schmidt, Gavey, & Fenaughty, 2009). 

McDermott, Borgogna, N. C., Hammer, J. H., Berry, A. T., & Levant, R. F. (2020). More Similar Than Different? Testing the Construct Validity of Men’s and Women’s Traditional Masculinity Ideology Using the Male Role Norms Inventory-Very Brief. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 21(4), 523–532. https://doi.org/10.1037/men0000251

Table 1 displays the available demographic information for each sample.

Participants were gathered from a combination of primary (unpublished) and secondary (portions previously published) data sets. All secondary data were acquired with permission from the primary authors of those studies. After IRB approval, participants from all samples were gathered through secure, online surveys. Sample 1 (secondary data) participants (n = 361) were gathered from the original validation study of MRNI-VB (McDermott et al., 2018). In that study, men’s and women’s factor loadings on the TMI latent variable were significantly different (i.e., metric invariance failed), but the authors did not examine the effect size of those differences. Thus, it was used as a comparison sample for the effect sizes of measurement non-invariance tested in our primary data (i.e., Sample 2 and Sample 3). Sample 1 (McDermott et al., 2018)

TMI IN MEN AND WOMEN 10

participants were obtained via an online survey administered through a randomly selected, representative sample of all undergraduates (oversampling for men) at a mid sized university on the Gulf Coast. Sample 2 participants (n = 2,086) were gathered through a large online survey administered to college students at the same institution as Sample 1 but also nationwide through Craigslist and social media distributions. Sample 3 participants (n = 303) were part of a primary data set gathered via a Psychology subject pool from the same institution as Samples 1 and 2.

Why is our topic important?

Hypothesis following previous evidence and applicable to our question 

Filling the gaps in our knowledge 

From previous studies 

What can we study/find and what is the proposed study

• Aim
  • The aim of the current study is to assess patriarchal ideals’ influence on differing ages in male help-seeking behavior.
    • Patriarchal ideals include toxic masculinity, gender roles (plus what we decide to talk about)

• Hypotheses:
  • We hypothesize that older men will possess more masculine ideals in comparison to younger men.
  • Older men will participate in help-seeking behavior less than younger men.

• Design briefly (provide a brief summary of the outline of our study):
  • Design (quantitative) – One questionnaire on masculinity and one on help-seeking behavior.
  • Masculinity questionnaire
    • MRNI-SF or MRNI-VB
    • Or, if there is time, MRNI-R (Levant et al., 2011)
  • Help-seeking behaviour (two of them)
  • Should we monitor where the survey is completed? In case of confounding (like other people interrupting or people discussing the questions as they do it)

• Participants:
  • Inclusion criteria:
    • Men – cis-gendered
    • Specific ages – 18+
    • Valid responses – all responses need to be answered
    • Born in Australia (? unsure about this – something to consider could be that other ethnicities treat masculinity different, therefore diff upbringings)
    • Language – English speaking
    • Completed on their own
  • Exclusion Criteria
    • Incomplete response –
    • Transgender males, nonbinary and genderqueer – acknowledge the exclusion but are also aware that their experiences of masculinity are typically different and marginalised. This could be something that future research could consider
    • Non-English speaking
    • Non-Australian born
    • Completed with other people (could this be monitored?)
  • Sample size: large? (other studies used large groups, why? And should we?)

Research method and Design:

• How were participants gathered: and why! – also how were they reimbursed for their time?
  • Survey monkey – can complete on phone, comfortable due to online
  • Younger (university, incentive) – implement as a part of gender and sexualities or social psychology curriculum, $10
    • Sports clubs
  • Older (pubs, incentive) – free beer (beer may be unethical)
    • Nursing home – as a part of volunteering, can assist with technology

• Ethical incentives?
  • The incentive should not be seen as attractive to induce participation
  • Lottery situation – go in the chance to win a prize
    • This could be a part of consent (odds of winning need to be included in this or ethics, somewhere they can read it)
    • Does not require subjects to pay to participate

• Ethical considerations
  • Debrief and follow-up questionnaire (regarding mental state – flag them if they are bad and could do a personal/professional follow up over the phone – consent to do this though)
  • Trigger warning
  • Guidance after/before (provide lifeline number if anything is distressing)
  • Consent form (at the start)
  • Ethics of incentive

Measures/ methodology: 

The study is conducted online using a tool such as survey monkey, this is easy as individuals do not need to go anywhere Comfortable due to online and consists of three questionnaires (should take approximately *** minutes)

Consent? 

Demographic questionnaire to ensure inclusion and exclusion criteria (here privacy addressed- only age, sex and gender are recorded. 

To measure Views on masculinity and what it means to be male were using the TMI (traditional male ideologies)  is the Male Role Norms Inventory (MRNI), which has evolved through several versions from the original MRNI developed in the late 1980s (Levant et al. 1992). A shorter version, the MRNI-Short Form (MRNI-SF), and a very brief version, the MRNI-Very Brief (MRNI-VB), were derived from the MRNI-Revised (MRNI-R)

Participants rate their level of agreement/disagreement with statements of beliefs about the appropriateness of various thoughts, feelings, or behaviors for men (e.g., “Men should be detached in emotionally charged situations”) using a seven-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree). In this study, Cronbach’s α’s for the subscales ranged from .71 to .93, and for the total score .93. The construct validity of the MRNI-SF has been demonstrated using a latent variable approach (Levant et al. 2016). As well, Gerdes et al. (2017) noted that the various versions of the MRNI have been correlated with over 70 other mea

Write example questions. 

To measure help seeking behavior and the Mental Help Seeking Attitudes Scale (MHSAS)

Make sure to note why we are studying using questionnaires and why we have chosen these questionnaires. 

Our Variables: 

We have 2 DV variables: these are masculinity scores and help seeking scores.

We have IV at two levels: older adults and younger adults

Statistical analysis: 

We’re using a MANOVA because…

Potential limitations of the Study: 

Limitations 

Future research: 

Depending upon whether the hypothesis are supported or unsupported:

Splitting age groups into 3

Sample being under 18

Genderqueer