Men managing cancer: a gender analysis

As researchers consider gendered patterns in men's prostate cancer experiences, little attention has been devoted to how men manage ‘cancer’, more generally. Drawing on the experiences of 30 Canadian men with a variety of cancer types, this article details how men engaged illness self‐management and help‐seeking activities with lay and professional support persons. Results indicate three broad responsive strategies: fortifying resources, maintaining the familiar, and getting through. In these pursuits, the participants drew on a variety of performances to respond to social contexts demanding that men embody masculine ideals including strength, control, and stoicism. Considering gendered dynamics in how men manage the challenges of cancer, this article broadens understandings about men's cancer experiences by highlighting the drivers orienting participants' responsive efforts and challenging assumptions of help‐seeking as essentially problematic for men in Western society.     

Latino men's qualitative perspectives on a lay health advisor intervention to promote their sexual health

Lay health advisor (LHA) approaches are a promising strategy to reduce health disparities among communities considered ‘hard to reach’ by researchers and practitioners. LHAs have addressed a variety of health issues, but limited studies have included men as LHAs. The purpose of this study was to better understand the roles of male LHAs and their male‐helping relationships. We used an inductive approach to explore Latino men's perspectives on serving as LHAs for other Latino men and Latino men's views on receiving sexual health information from a male LHA. We collected qualitative data in 2009 and 2010 as part of an LHA intervention designed to reduce the risk of HIV infection among immigrant Latinos through the social networks of soccer teams. We analysed and interpreted data from 30 in‐depth interviews with Latino men who served as LHAs and their social networks in North Carolina, USA. Participants shared perceptions on social network importance for immigrant Latinos, facilitators and challenges of helping other men, recommendations for intervention modification and suggestions for future work involving the Latino community. Findings revealed that Latino men are receptive to fulfilling the roles of health advisors and opinion leaders, and can effectively serve as LHAs. Social network members valued the social support they received. Working through sports teams and identifying existing leaders to be LHAs may be a culturally congruent approach to meeting Latino community needs. More research is needed on the potential of male LHAs to address other health issues.     

Integrating male sexual diversity into violence prevention efforts with men and boys: evidence from the Asia-Pacific Region

Evidence shows the importance of working with men to reduce intimate partner violence and HIV-risk. Two claims dominate this work. The first is that interventions ‘reconstruct’ masculinities – these new formations of masculinity exist in opposition to existing ones and are healthier for men and less harmful for women. The second is that to be successful, such interventions need to address men's exclusion from the economy. Using a qualitative longitudinal cohort study of young men who participated in a gender transformative and livelihood strengthening intervention, as well as dyadic interviews with men's main female partners, we explore these claims. Data suggests men saw some improvements in livelihoods and relationships. However, challenging social contexts, including high rates of unemployment, peer networks and a dominant youth masculinity, limited change. Rather than reconstructing masculinity, a more subtle shift was seen with men moving away from ‘harmful’ aspects of a dominant youth masculinity towards a form of masculinity whereby male power is buttressed by economic provision and attempting to form and support ‘households’. Working with men on their livelihoods at an instrumental level encouraged participation in the intervention. Beyond encouragement, men's improving livelihoods afforded men the opportunity to materially demonstrate the social changes – in the form of shifts in masculinity – they were seeking to enact.     

Male farmers with mental health disorders: A scoping review

The issue of male farmers' mental health raises many concerns including high rates of psychological distress and suicide amid the poor uptake of health services among this subgroup. Gender is an important social determinant of health, and this paper provides an overview of connections between farming and masculinities in the context of men's mental health disorders. This scoping review summarises findings drawn from 46 studies to discuss male farmers' mental health disorders, psychosocial interventions and barriers to help‐seeking. In providing the review, recommendations are made including the need for an array of study and intervention approaches to advance the mental health and well‐being of male farmers and their families.     

Heterosexual experiences of secondary school pupils in Ireland: sexual coercion in context

This paper reports on data from a wider study of young people's heterosexual experiences in Ireland, but focuses in particular on issues of sexual coercion. Data were gathered from 29 focus group interviews with 102 young women and 124 young men and were analysed using a qualitative research strategy. Drawing on concepts of social coercion and interpersonal coercion, we argue that both female and male participants reported a general sense of social coercion to lose their virginity by a certain age. However, narratives of interpersonal coercion were far stronger in the case of the young women compared with their male counterparts, while the young men reported a particular type of social coercion that propelled them to subscribe to conventional heterosexual male behaviour. We argue that while the distinction between social coercion and interpersonal coercion is far from watertight, it is a useful conceptual tool in identifying broad variations in women's and men's sexually coercive experiences.     

Men living with long‐term conditions: exploring gender and improving social care

Disabled men have traditionally been seen as incomplete men or as entirely gender‐less. Research which has looked at the intersection of disability and male gender has largely treated disabled men as a homogeneous group with little reference to, for example, impairment‐related differences. The ongoing move towards self‐directed, personalised social care in England suggests that support needs relating to gender may be taken more seriously. A qualitative study with 20 men with Duchenne muscular dystrophy in England in 2013 explored the men's experiences of the organisation and delivery of social care as it pertained to their sense of being men. Our main finding was that social care in its broadest sense did little to support a positive sense of masculinity or male gender. More often than not the organisation and delivery of social care people de‐gendered or emasculated many of the men who took part in the study. Our paper speaks to the need to explore impairment‐specific issues for disabled men; to deliver a more person‐centred approach to social care which recognises the importance of the social and sexual lives of disabled men; and to create ways in which men can support and empower each other to assert essential human rights relating to independence, dignity and liberty.     

Living for the moment: men situating risk‐taking after the death of a friend

The primary cause of death for men under the age of 30 is unintentional injury and, despite health‐promotion efforts and programme interventions, male injury and death rates have not decreased in recent years. Drawing on 22 interviews from a study of men, risk and grief, we describe how a risk‐related tragedy shaped the participants’ understandings of and practices of risk‐taking. The findings indicate that most participants did not alter their perceptions and engagement in risky practices, which reflected their alignment to masculine ideals within specific communities of practice where risk‐taking was normalised and valorised. Continued reliance on risky practices following the death of a friend was predominantly expressed as ‘living for the moment,’ where caution and safety were framed as conservative practices that undermined and diluted the robustness ideally embodied by this subgroup of young men. Two main themes: living life, accepting death and upping the ante illustrate how risk‐taking can persist following a death. A smaller group of participants articulated a different viewpoint; reining in risk practices, to describe their risk management approaches after the death of a male friend. This novel study confirms the ongoing challenge of reducing men's risk‐taking practices, even after the death of a friend.     

Men's Sheds: enabling environments for Australian men living with and without long‐term disabilities

The health of Australian men has recently received greater attention. Men's Sheds are named in national policy as an exemplar community‐based organisation for the betterment of men's psychosocial health; yet, the evidence base to support this is limited. This study investigates the comparative experience of men with long‐term disabilities and men without long‐term disabilities who go to a Men's Shed and to what extent this provides these men with an enabling, as opposed to disabling, environment. Data were collected from 12 individual interviews with men with long‐term disabilities (5) and men without long‐term disabilities (6), including 1 interview with the male Men's Shed Coordinator (MSC); participant observation within the shed; and a document received from the female MSC regarding the funding the Shed receives. Interviews explored the men's experiences at the Shed and their sense of belonging and social inclusion. Participants had any type of long‐term disability and had been attending the shed for a minimum of 1 month. Data were collected between May and September 2013 and were analysed using the constant comparative method of grounded theory. The core theme that emerged was an enabling community space. The four sub‐themes were: a community and social hub; an equalising space; a safe and supportive male environment; and meaningful male activities. The current literature exemplifies Men's Sheds to be important community‐based organisations beneficial to men's health and well‐being. For men living with long‐term disabilities, this study illuminates that Men's Sheds offer an environment of equality, facilitating a collegial and egalitarian culture. Men can partake in enabling activities and enjoy the company of other men enhancing their sense of belonging and social inclusion as well as interact with other community groups that occupy the same space as the Men's Shed.     

‘It's like taking a bit of masculinity away from you’: towards a theoretical understanding of men's experiences of infertility

In the UK, nearly half of all cases of infertility involve a ‘male‐factor’. Yet, little empirical work has explored how men as men negotiate this terrain. Three interrelated concepts; ‘hegemonic masculinity’, ‘embodied masculinity’ and the linkages between ‘masculinities’ and male help‐seeking, provide the theoretical framework that guided a qualitative study conducted with 22 men experiencing infertility. The paper explores men's propensity to delay their help‐seeking in relation to infertility despite their desire for children. It also demonstrates how, in the context of infertility, the male body can be defined as both a failed entity in itself (unable to father a child) and a subordinated social entity (unable to measure up to hegemonic ideals) that characterises men's masculine identities. The paper also illustrates how men appear willing to accept responsibility for their infertility and adopt aspects of hitherto subordinate masculine practice. This does not, however, constitute the total unravelling of well understood and accepted expressions of masculinity. Finally, the paper demonstrates how infertility is perceived as having the potential to fracture current and even future relationships. Moreover, regardless of how well men measured up to other hegemonic ideals, ultimately they can do little to counteract the threat of other (fertile) men.     

Amigos and amistades: the role of men's social network ties in shaping HIV vulnerability in the Dominican Republic

While men's social networks have been identified as a source of influence on sexual behaviour, less is known about the different types of friendship ties within men's networks. We analysed data from qualitative in-depth interviews with 36 men in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic who are current or former sexual partners of female sex workers to understand how: (1) men describe trust and communication with different types of friendship ties, (2) characteristics of trust and communication reflect norms of masculinity, and (3) these friendship ties influence HIV-related behaviours. We identified a distinction between amistades, social drinking buddies who are not trusted, and amigos, trusted friends. The majority of men lacked any amigos and some had neither amigos nor amistades. In general, men reflected traditional norms of masculinity and said they did not feel they could discuss their relationships or emotional topics with other men. Trust and communication dynamics, and how norms of masculinity shape those dynamics, should be understood and addressed in the design of HIV prevention efforts with men's social networks as they have implications for the potential effectiveness of such efforts.     

Married men's first time experiences of early childbearing and their role in sexual and reproductive decision making: a qualitative study from rural Vietnam

Male partners' involvement in women's sexual and reproductive health has been increasingly emphasised in international health. A qualitative approach with open-ended qualitative interviews was used to explore young, married men's first time experiences of early childbearing, their sexual and reproductive decision making and the meanings they make of their role as husbands and fathers. The results offer a nuanced picture of the men's vulnerability in becoming young fathers and having to assume their role as family decision-makers, while still being inexperienced in matters related to the health of their wives and newborn child. Constraints to gender equality and traditional norms and values continue to pose barriers to both young men and women making independent decisions in relation to marriage and childbearing. Men's involvement is necessary in healthcare programmes designed to improve women's sexual and reproductive health and the health of the newborn. Young, first-time fathers, in particular, need support and empowerment.     

Men's perspectives on fall risk and fall prevention following participation in a group‐based programme conducted at Men's Sheds,Australia

Research on older men's views regarding fall prevention is limited. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences and perspectives of older men regarding fall risk and prevention so that fall prevention programmes can better engage older men. Eleven men who had taken part in a group‐based fall prevention programme called Stepping On conducted at Men's Sheds in Sydney, Australia, participated in semi‐structured interviews during June and July 2015 which were audio‐recorded and transcribed. Data were coded and analysed using constant comparative methods. Over‐arching theoretical categories were developed into a conceptual framework linking programme context and content with effects of programme participation on men. Men's Sheds facilitated participation in the programme by being inclusive, male‐friendly places, where Stepping On was programmed into regular activities and was conducted in an enjoyable, supportive atmosphere. Programme content challenged participants to think differently about themselves and their personal fall risk, and provided practical options to address fall risk. Two major themes were identified: adjusting the mindset where men adopted a more cautious mindset paying greater attention to potential fall risks, being careful, concentrating and slowing down; and changing the ways where men acted purposefully on environmental hazards at home and incorporated fall prevention exercises into their routine schedules. Practitioners can engage and support older men to address falls by better understanding men's perspectives on personal fall risk and motivations for action.     

‘We are always in some form of contact’: friendships among homeless drug and alcohol users living in hostels

Homeless drug and alcohol users are one of the most marginalised groups in society. They frequently have complex needs and limited social support. In this paper, we explore the role of friendship in the lives of homeless drug and alcohol users living in hostels, using the concepts of ‘social capital’ and ‘recovery capital’ to frame the analyses. The study was undertaken in three hostels, each in a different English city, during 2013–2014. Audio recorded semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 30 residents (9 females; 21 males) who self‐reported drink and/or drug problems; follow‐up interviews were completed 4–6 weeks later with 22 participants (6 females; 16 males). Data were transcribed verbatim, coded using the software package MAXQDA, and analysed using Framework. Only 21 participants reported current friends at interview 1, and friendship networks were small and changeable. Despite this, participants desired friendships that were culturally normative. Eight categories of friend emerged from the data: family‐like friends; using friends; homeless friends; childhood friends; online‐only friends; drug treatment friends; work friends; and mutual interest friends. Routine and regular contact was highly valued, with family‐like friends appearing to offer the most constant practical and emotional support. The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) was central to many participants' friendships, keeping them connected to social support and recovery capital outside homelessness and substance‐using worlds. We conclude that those working with homeless drug and alcohol users – and potentially other marginalised populations – could beneficially encourage their clients to identify and build upon their most positive and reliable relationships. Additionally, they might explore ways of promoting the use of ICTs to combat loneliness and isolation. Texting, emailing, online mutual aid meetings, chatrooms, Internet penpals, skyping and other social media all offer potentially valuable opportunities for building friendships that can bolster otherwise limited social and recovery capital.     

Men behaving differently: South African men since 1994

Liberal versions of sexuality, which mark South Africa's new democracy, have had a number of highly contradictory consequences for women and men, as old notions of masculinity and male privilege have been destabilized. The transition to democracy has precipitated a crisis of masculinity. Orthodox notions of masculinity are being challenged and new versions of masculinity are emerging in their place. Some men are seeking to be part of a new social order while others are defensively clinging to more familiar routines. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with young African working class men, this paper explores new masculinities in contemporary South Africa. It examines how men negotiate their manhood in a period of social turbulence and transition. Masculinity, male sexuality, and the expectations which men have of themselves, each other and women are contested and in crisis.     

Men's experiences of giving and taking social support after their wife's spinal cord injury

The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of how men living with women with spinal cord injury (SCI) experienced and acted when they were giving and taking social support to and from their wives and other persons in their social network. Another aim was to give some possible explanations of the complex process of change that they went through. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with four men and field notes. To describe the men's subjective experiences and the process of change, a narrative approach inspired by Polkinghorne was used. The analyses resulted in one story that included the four men's experiences and action. The story showed that when the men went through a process of change, they used and needed both emotional and practical support to handle their new life situation. Furthermore, the men's experiences and action against social support changed over time. This indicated that, through narratives from spouses, professionals within rehabilitation could understand the process of change they went through after their partner's sudden injury, and support them to find strategies to handle their changed life situation. To give some possible explanations for the men's experiences and action during the process of change, the findings are discussed in relation to theories concerning adaptation and coping.     

Young Men's Reentry After Incarceration: A Developmental Paradox

We apply a life course perspective to study young men's transition to adulthood within the context of their return to family after a period of incarceration. Our phenomenological analysis was based on 9 in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with formerly incarcerated men between the age of 18 and 24. Our findings revealed that reentry was a developmental paradox that embodied contradictions about employment, maturity, and dependence on family. A key developmental contradiction was that although employment was essential for young men's ability to become independent, it was out of reach for most of the study participants due to their criminal justice involvement. Furthermore, lived meanings around dependency on family as a result of incarceration ran counter to young men's self‐definitions of adult manhood. Recommendations are discussed to help resolve these contradictions and facilitate young offenders' ability to move forward in life.     

Gender, social relations and mental health: prospective findings from an occupational cohort (Whitehall II study)

Gender differences in social support tend to suggest that women have larger social networks and both give and receive more support than men. Nevertheless, although social support has been identified as protective of mental health, women have higher rates of psychological distress than men. We examine the prospective association between social support and psychological distress by gender in a cohort study of middle aged British Civil Servants, the Whitehall II study. In this sample we found that women have a larger number of close persons than men although men have larger social networks. We also found that the effects of marital status, social support within and outside the workplace and social networks on subsequent occurrence of psychological distress were similar for men and women independently of baseline mental health status.     

Gender,masculinity and migration: Mexican men and reproductive health in the Californian context

An appreciation of the social, cultural and economic dimensions of gender and sexuality is important in increasing reproductive health service utilisation. This analysis of recent Mexican male immigrants in Southern California focuses on changing views of gender roles, masculinity and relationship dynamics in the context of migration in order to explain low levels of reproductive healthcare utilisation. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 23 men who had migrated from Mexico. Some men saw their migratory experience as empowering, both individually and within the couple context. Migration reinforced positive male qualities, such as being a good provider. However, for others, the levelling of economic power between immigrant couples challenged traditional male gender roles and threatened men's identities. Maintaining control and decision-making power, especially in reproduction, remained tenacious, especially among older men. In response to immigration, however, men's views of ideal family size and contraceptive method preferences had evolved. The migration process caused some divisions in family networks and aspirations of fatherhood as an expression of masculinity contributed to varying levels of contraceptive use. Recommendations are made on factors that may empower male clients more actively to seek reproductive healthcare in the context of more equitable couple decision-making.     

Suicide and friendships among American adolescents

OBJECTIVES: We investigated the relationship between friendships and suicidality among male and female adolescents. METHODS: We analyzed friendship data on 13,465 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health to explore the relationship between friendship and suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. We controlled for known factors associated with suicidality. RESULTS: Having had a friend who committed suicide increased the likelihood of suicidal ideation and attempts for both boys and girls. Socially isolated females were more likely to have suicidal thoughts, as were females whose friends were not friends with each other. Among adolescents thinking about suicide, suicide attempts appear largely stochastic, with few consistent risk factors between boys and girls. CONCLUSIONS: The friendship environment affects suicidality for both boys and girls. Female adolescents' suicidal thoughts are significantly increased by social isolation and friendship patterns in which friends were not friends with each other.