Citation

McDermott RC, Brasil KM, Wong YJ, Barinas JL, Berry AT. Psychol. Men Masc. 2022; 23(2): 265-270.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/men0000390

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Traditional depressive symptoms (e.g., crying, feeling sad) are common among university men and can be a potential threat to one's masculinity. Many men experiencing depressive symptoms socially isolate, suggesting a heightened concern for how their depressive symptoms may be viewed socially. However, research has yet to examine the interrelationships between masculinity, depressive symptoms, and social anxiety symptomology. The present study examined the associations between social anxiety symptoms, traditional depressive symptoms, and masculinity contingency threat (MCT; i.e., the degree to which men feel their self-worth would be threatened if they could not be manly) in a sample of U.S. university men (N = 606). Bivariate correlations revealed that MCT was positively associated with depressive and social anxiety symptoms. Men with moderate to severe depressive symptoms also reported significantly greater mean levels of MCT and social anxiety than men with no or mild depressive symptoms. However, conditional process modeling revealed that depressive symptoms emerged as a significant moderator such that the positive relationship between MCT and social anxiety symptoms was only significant at no or mild levels of depressive symptoms. These results suggest that depression and masculinity contingency may act as complementary drivers of social anxiety among university men but that, at a high level, depressive symptoms may overshadow or outweigh any potential concerns about being masculine in relation to men's social anxiety. Limitations of the present study and practical implications are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Language: en