Male Students
Bio-psychological risk factors for suicide among male students include: depression, substance abuse, emotional inexpressiveness, utilization of less healthy coping strategies (denial, distraction, alcohol, withdrawal), propensity of self-reliance, and increased health problems relative to females. Sociocultural risk factors for suicide among male students include: killing oneself is seen as a more masculine act, males hold a more permissive attitude about suicide, traditional masculinity promotes maladaptive coping strategies, males have smaller social networks than females, males have fewer intimate friendships, and males are reluctant to seek psychiatric care. Males are socialized to behave and regard themselves in particular ways that garner social benefits and rewards. Certain traits and attributes are prized and celebrated in males, but often lead to unhealthy outcomes.
Protective factors among males include social connections within families and social support outside of families, including friends, co-workers, and other peers. Filling various roles in family: brother, son, father, etc., serves to protect mental health through signification of purpose and worth. Similarly, having friends and others to confide in aids in healthy coping with stress and problems. Contextual factors that influence suicidality center on men's decreased likelihood of recognizing that they are under stress, unhappy, or ill.
Additionally, men are less likely to consult their doctor when they are distressed, and if they do, they are more likely to complain of physical symptoms or vague ill-health. Internal barriers to seeking care include feelings of shame and embarrassment that they may have a mental health problem, confidentiality concerns, and feelings of stigmatization when expressing themselves emotionally. External barriers include health professionals' decreased likelihood of diagnosing men with a mental disorder. Gender role conflict occurs when rigid, sexist, or restrictive gender roles, learned during socialization, result in the personal restriction, devaluation, or violation of others or self.
How males are raised, TV/music/movie star role models, and cues (verbal and non-verbal) from immediate family, friends, and community authorities play a significant role in shaping and informing how males understand and orient themselves to masculinity. Childhood rules and regulations are instituted early-on by their guardians that spelled out a code of conduct by which they are to live by. There are consequences for being, behaving, or feeling in an unacceptable manner in the sense that their identities are policed and governed with rewards and punishments sometimes by friends, sometimes by authorities in schools, churches, and other community institutions. More traditional male clients (men with higher levels of gender role conflict) exhibit greater levels of psychological distress, such as depression and anxiety.
Studies show that higher levels of male gender role conflict are associated with lower self-esteem and higher anxiety, higher depression, lower social intimacy, more sexual aggression, and great somatic complaints. In fact 15% of the variance in men's psychological distress is predicted by their level of gender role conflict. The traditional male-role socialization provides contradictory and unrealistic messages, resulting in considerable internal conflict. The four major factors in gender-role conflict are success, power, and competition; restrictive emotionality; restrictive affectionate behavior between men; and conflicts between work and family relations.
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Anna M. Gove Student Health Center, 107 Gray Drive 27412
Greensboro, NC 27402-6170
VOICE 336.334.5340
FAX 336.334.5343