Men’s Help Seeking: Examination of Differences Across Community Size, Education, and Income

The present study examined the relationships between traditional Western masculine norms, self-stigma, and attitudes toward counseling among 4,748 men from different community sizes, and different education and income levels. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses suggest that, across all male subgroups, masculine norms were linked to self-stigma and, in turn, attitudes toward counseling. However, several clear differences in the strengths of the relationships between model variables were found, including a relationship between masculine norms and self-stigma that was twice as strong for rural men than for other men. The importance of attending to the varying relationships among masculine norm conformity, self-stigma, and help-seeking attitudes for men from these diverse demographic backgrounds—in the context of clinical practice, prevention, and future research—is discussed