Washington: Men who see themselves as playboys or as having power over women are more likely to have psychological problems than those who conform less to traditionally masculine norms, a new study has warned.
Researchers also found that men who adhere to masculine norms are also less likely to seek treatment. "In general, individuals who conformed strongly to
masculine norms tended to have poorer mental health and less favourable attitudes towards seeking psychological help, although the results differed depending on specific types of masculine norms," said Y Joel Wong from Indiana University Bloomington in the US.
Wong and his colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 78 research samples involving 19,453 participants that focused on the relationship between mental health and conformity to 11 norms generally considered by experts to reflect society's expectations of traditional masculinity. Specifically, they focused on three broad types of mental health outcomes: negative mental health (eg, depression), positive mental health (eg, life satisfaction), and psychological help seeking (eg, seeking counselling services).
While most of the US-based studies focused on predominantly white males, some focused predominantly on African-Americans and some on Asian-Americans. While overall, conforming to masculine norms was associated with negative mental health outcomes in subjects, the researchers found the association to be most consistent for these three norms - self-reliance, pursuit of playboy behaviour, and power over women.
"The masculine norms of playboy and power over women are the norms most closely associated with sexist attitudes," said Wong. "The robust association between conformity to these two norms and negative mental health-related outcomes underscores the idea that sexism is not merely a social injustice, but may also have a detrimental effect on the mental health of those who embrace such attitudes," Wong said.
Even more concerning, said Wong, was that men who strongly conformed to masculine norms were not only more likely to have poor mental health but also less likely to seek mental health treatment. There was one dimension for which the researchers were unable to find any significant effects. "Primacy of work was not significantly associated with any of the mental health-related outcomes," said Wong.
"Perhaps this is a reflection of the complexity of work and its implications for well-being. An excessive focus on work can be harmful to one's health and interpersonal relationships, but work is also a source of meaning for many
individuals," said Wong.
Conformity to the masculine norm of risk-taking was significantly associated with both negative and positive mental health outcomes, suggesting that risk-taking can have both positive and negative psychological consequences, said Wong. The study was published in the Journal of Counselling Psychology.
