title: Masculinity impediments: Internalized masculinity contributes to healthcare avoidance in men and women.
abstract: Gender beliefs contribute to men's healthcare avoidance, but little research examines these outcomes in women. This article models healthcare avoidance related to masculine contingencies of self-worth in men and women. Nested path modelling tested relationships between social role beliefs, masculine contingencies of self-worth, barriers to help seeking and avoidance of health care in university and non-university-student adult samples. Results indicated social role beliefs predicted masculine contingencies of self-worth in men but not in women. Regardless of gender, masculine contingencies of self-worth predicted barriers to help seeking, which predicted healthcare avoidance in both men and women. Thus, masculine contingencies of self-worth have downstream consequences for men and women through barriers to help seeking.
authors.affiliation: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA msh127@rci.rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Mary S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Himmelstein
authors.affiliation: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA.
authors.forename: Diana T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Sanchez
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D057228:Masculinity; D008571:Men; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities
keywords: gender; health behaviour; health care; men’s health; women’s health