Degree Type

Dissertation

Date of Award

2019

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Psychology

Major

Psychology

First Advisor

David L. Vogel

Second Advisor

Loreto Prieto

Abstract

According to Social Identity Theory, men should demonstrate a stronger link between masculinity and the avoidance of psychological help seeking relative to women, as their in-group social identity status relies on the demonstration of ‘masculine’ behavior. However, this assertion has yet to be directly tested. Using structural equation modeling, this study addressed this omission by testing the invariance of a previously identified help seeking model across men and women, using samples of both college students and community adults. Specifically, the model examined the link between masculinity and several factors linked to psychological help seeking (i.e., help-seeking stigma, disclosure risks, attitudes, and intentions). In addition, self-compassion has been identified as a potential buffering factor for the link between masculinity and help-seeking outcomes, though this has only been tested with men. As such, self-compassion was included as a moderating variable in the study, to examine any differences in the moderating effect between men and women. Finally, this study also tested a model examining the relation between masculinity and initial help-seeking decisions (i.e., deciding to access online information about mental health or psychological services), as this had yet to be examined in previous studies.

Copyright Owner

Patrick Heath

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

File Size

138 pages

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