There is a discrepancy between men and women in regards to utilization of professional psychological services. It has been estimated that two-thirds of all individuals seeking professional psychological services are women. One reason that has been suggested to explain this underutilization of services by men is negative attitudes toward seeking psychological services and an inability to express emotion. The current investigation examined the relationship between men’s emotional expression, their attitudes toward expressing emotion, attitudes toward seeking professional psychological services, and their perceived barriers to seeking help. Participants were 228 men from a large, Midwestern university. Their age ranged from 18 to 50 years with a mean age of 23.34 years. Level of education ranged from freshmen undergraduate students to Master’s level graduate students. Eighty six percent identified as Caucasian and 90% identified as straight, and 6.6% identified as gay. To assess the relationship between the variables canonical correlation analysis was performed. Results demonstrated that men’s actual emotional expression and attitudes toward expressing emotion were related to stigma associated with and barriers to seeking professional psychological services. In particular, the more negative attitudes men had toward expressing emotion and the less emotional expressive they were, the greater their stigma beliefs associated with seeking professional psychological services and the more barriers they perceived with seeking said services. Findings from this investigation offer areas for future research, including further investigations of the relationship between attitudes toward expressing emotion and stigma associated with seeking professional psychological services. In addition, clinical applications are discussed, including methods to decrease stigma associated with seeking professional psychological services and means to address emotional expression with men in therapeutic settings. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

No description available.

No description available.

This study evaluates whether a hands-on educational intervention makes a significant difference in the proper use of an infant passenger restraint by a parent. The sample was chosen from parents who were at least seven months pregnant and who planned to transport their infants in passenger motor vehicles. Each participant was randomly placed in one of two groups. All participants received a free infant car seat and a standardized education session on the safety and use of infant passenger restraints. The experimental group received an additional component consisting of a hands-on demonstration and return demonstration of correct installation and use in their own vehicle. All hands-on teaching was done by RNs who were nationally certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians. Follow up observations of correctness of use was done by appointment several months after birth using a standardized observation tool. The total sample consisted of 111 parents. There were 56 in the intervention group and 55 in the control group. Participants ranged in age from 19 to 53 years, with the majority in their 30's. Most were women. They were well educated, with above average incomes. A high number were of Asian ethnicity. A total of24 (22%) had correct use. Of these, 18 (32%) were in the intervention group and 6 (11%) were in the control group. The intervention group was 4 times more likely to have correct use than the control group (odds ratio 4.3, P value=0.0074). The number of errors per person was 0 to 7, with most having 0 to 2. The rates of errors were 33% less in the intervention group (ratio of 0.67). There were few serious errors. Secondary variables tested in regression analysis were age, education, income, and help from others. None of these variables was found to have a significant effect on the outcome. The hands-on educational intervention made a significant difference in the proper use of a child passenger restraint by a parent. This study demonstrates the value of hands­ on teaching for parents to learn how to install and use a child car seat. Everyone who transports a child in a motor vehicle should have access to this type of education. Nurses, physicians, and others working with families should encourage them to seek out this kind of teaching, and should advocate for more programs which offer this service.

Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type I Syndrome (MEN 1) is a monogenic autosomal dominantly inherited cancer syndrome caused by a heterozygous loss of the MEN1 gene, predisposing for endocrine cell proliferation and tumor formation. MEN 1 carriers classically develop tumors in endocrine organs; the parathyroids, the endocrine pancreas, and the pituitary. Other organs, endocrine and non-endocrine, may also be affected. The most common cause of death in MEN 1 is pancreatic endocrine tumor (PNET), which exhibit inactivation of both MEN1 alleles. The increased proliferation prior to loss of the wild-type allele indicates haploinsufficiency, and little is known concerning the mechanisms behind MEN 1 PNET development. The MEN1 protein, menin, lacking homology with other known proteins, is involved in several aspects of transcriptional regulation and chromatin organization. We report differential expression and subcellular localization of transcription factors important in pancreatic development, in human and mouse MEN 1 pancreas, compared to non-MEN 1 pancreas. A predominantly cytoplasmic localization of Neurogenin3 and NeuroD1 was observed in tumors as well as in MEN 1 non-tumorous pancreas. Notch signaling factor expression and localization were examined in the pancreas of a heterozygous Men1 mouse model, and compared with that of wild-type littermates. Nuclear Hes1 was lost in tumors, concomitant to weaker Notch1 NICD expression, and further, analyzed using qPCR, it was shown that Notch1 was less expressed in heterozygous islets compared to wild-type islets. Performing a global gene expression array, we identified differential gene expression in five-week-old heterozygous Men1 mouse islets, compared to islets from wild-type littermates. The array results for a subset of the differentially regulated genes were corroborated using qPCR, western blotting and in situ PLA. We additionally observed significantly accelerated proliferation in islets from young heterozygous animals. It is often problematic to determine prognosis for individual patients with PNET. This is especially true in the group of patients with well differentiated endocrine carcinomas. In the absence of metastases, morphological signs of malignancy are frequently lacking. We evaluated the expression of nuclear and cytoplasmic survivin in a clinically characterized patient material (n=111), and a high nuclear survivin expression proved to be a significant negative prognostic factor for survival.

A Bachelor's Family is a memoir of relationship, exploring --from a male point of view--my trajectory to a 'circumstantially childless' middle age. The thesis argues for this memoir and my concurrently written magazine column In The Male, to be read in the context of 'masculinity politics', specifically as a site of what Bob Connell terms 'masculinity therapy'. As a writer heretofore of fiction, the fact that I should find myself working in these forms of creative non-fiction--both attempts to discuss aspects of contemporary masculinity in the public sphere--reflects not only recent industry and reader interest in the form but, with its emphasis on the 'healing possibilities' of truthfulness and personal disclosure, embraces the essence of 'masculinity therapy'.

Thesis (MA (AborStud))--University of South Australia, 1995

This thesis investigates Japanese married men??s views on their wives?? employment and married women??s employment in general. I was inspired to undertake this study by the relatively low rate of wives, particularly mothers, in full-time employment in Japan. 291 Japanese husbands in Kawasaki and the Tokyo area answered the questionnaire. Their occupations were company employees, teachers and self-employed men and their ages ranged from the 20s to 50s. The results of my survey revealed that these Japanese husbands did not actively participate in housework and childcare. Their participation increased somewhat when wives were highly educated or older. However, a wife??s higher income was the most powerful incentive to encourage their participation. Husbands also participate in these tasks in accordance with their preferences rather than their expressed abilities. With respect to their views on married women and employment, many husbands acknowledged a general relationship between power and finance (that is, that income-earning is connected with domestic power), yet denied that it applied to themselves when asked about it. The majority showed supportive or sympathetic attitudes towards full-time housewives, which were rarely extended to employed wives except for those who work (part-time) due to clear financial necessity. Concerning men??s views on their wives, they were likely to appreciate a wife??s additional income. Nonetheless, a majority wanted their wives either to earn less than themselves or to have no income, even though the majority had income-earning wives. Their most popular employment status for a wife was part-time employment. The study revealed that most of these husbands had a strong identity as the ??breadwinner?? or ??head of the house??. In this study I explored a new dimension to Japanese husbands?? perceptions of their wives?? employment: the possibility that husbands?? attitudes and preferences were militating against their wives?? employment. My study demonstrated that husbands especially resist full-time employment for their wives, and seek to maintain traditional gender roles because this sustains their self-esteem. This is clearly one significant reason for the comparatively low rate of participation of Japanese wives in full-time employment.

This hermeneutical study interprets and describes the phenomena of ageing and living with disability. The lived experiences of 14 older men and the horizon of this researcher developed an understanding of what it is like for men to grow old and, for some, to live with the effects of a major disability. The study is grounded in the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer and framed in the context of embodiment, masculinity, and narrative. I conducted multiple in-depth interviews with older men aged from 67 to 83 years of age. Seven of the participants had experienced a stroke and I was able to explore the phenomenon of disability with them. Through thematic and narrative analyses of the textual data interpretations were developed that identified common meanings and understandings of the phenomena of ageing and disability. These themes and narratives reveal that the men�s understandings are at odds with conventional negative views of ageing and disability. These older men are �alive and kicking�, they voice counternarratives to the dominant construction of ageing as decline and weakness, and have succeeded in remaking the lifeworld after stroke. Overall I have come to understand an overarching meaning of older men �working it out� as illustrative of a strong face of ageing and disability. Older men seek out opportunities to participate actively in community life and, despite the challenges of ageing and disability, lead significant and meaningful lives. These findings challenge and extend our limited understandings of men�s experiences of ageing and living with disability. This interpretation offers gendered directions for policy development, clinical practice, and future research.

The current study of 151 college men explored weight-related factors that contribute to depressive symptoms among undergraduate men using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results of SEM supported the hypothesis that perceived negative messages about one's body and body dissatisfaction were significant mediators of the relationship between BMI and depressive symptoms. Moreover, social connectedness and academic self-concept were significant moderators of the relationship between body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms. Although self-esteem was not a significant moderator, it was significantly related to body dissatisfaction, despite the men's magnitude of perceived body pressures. These findings inform therapeutic work with college men, signifying the importance of improving the quality of their relationships in family and social systems to reduce both depressive symptoms and body dissatisfaction. Furthermore, advocacy programming to counter body related pressure from media, societal systems, and other people would likely benefit college men struggling with body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms.