Gender influences on help seeking among men and women with chronic pain

<p> Previous research has supported the notion that significantly more women than men seek help for chronic pain. This study aims to understand gender differences in how, when, and from whom individuals seek help for chronic pain. In particular, many aspects of masculinity have been demonstrated to inhibit help seeking. Participants were a sample of patients seeking treatment at a pain treatment facility. It was hypothesized that there would be a greater discrepancy between pain self-reported on paper versus in person by men than would be by women. It was also hypothesized that higher conformity to masculine norms would be positively related to greater self-report discrepancy. Additionally, the author expected to find gender differences in the amount of time between the onset of pain and disclosure of pain as well as medical help seeking. Again, it was anticipated that greater delays in disclosure and medical help seeking would be related to higher conformity to masculine norms. Moreover, conformity to masculine norms was expected to mediate gender differences in help seeking. The author also hypothesized that the type of people to whom pain is first disclosed would differ based on differences in gender and conformity to masculine norms.</p>

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3637160
Date28 October 2014
CreatorsLaGrange, Sarah J.
PublisherIndiana University
Source SetsProQuest.com
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typethesis

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