Search

There is growing awareness about issues of sexual consent, especially in autonomy-compromising or "non-ideal" contexts, including sex involving alcohol. Understanding the conditions needed for consensual sex to occur in this emergent milieu is critically important, especially for young men (ages 18–30 years) who normatively combine drinking alcohol with sex and are most often perpetrators of sexual violence. This study offers a discourse analysis of young men's alcohol use and sexual consent. Data are drawn from qualitative interviews with 76 young men (including gay, bisexual, queer, and straight men) in Vancouver, Canada, from 2018 to 2021. Informed by Kukla's non-ideal theory of sexual consent and critical and inclusive masculinities, this analysis identified three discursive frames: careful connections, watering it down, and blurred lines. In careful connections young men discussed their efforts to actively promote sexual and decisional autonomy for themselves and their sexual partners when drinking. Yet, in watering it down young men invoked discourses of disinhibition, deflection, and denial to normalize alcohol use as being somewhat excusatory for sexual violence, downplaying the role and responsibility of men. Lastly, men operationalized blurred lines through a continuum of consent and of "meeting (masculine) expectations" when discussing sexual violence and victimization while intoxicated. Together, these discursive frames provide insights into the gendered nature of sexual violence and the extent to which idealized notions of sexual consent play out in the everyday lives of young men who use alcohol with sex. Findings hold philosophical and pragmatic implications for contemporary efforts to scaffold sexual consent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 impacted many men’s intimate partner relationships, with distressed and disrupted partnerships consistently featured in commentaries with linkages to mental health challenges. The current study draws from interviews with 23 Canadian-based men, 19–50 years old, who experienced a break-up during COVID-19. Addressing the research question, “What are the connections between masculinities, men’s mental health, and intimate partner relationship break-ups during COVID-19?”, three thematic findings were derived: (1) Virtually Together and Growing Apart, (2) Mentally Trapped, and Failing Fast and Slow, and (3) Introspections and Moving On. Virtually Together and Growing Apart describes two contexts wherein men were either challenged by being physically apart from their partner or increasingly estranged while cohabitating with their partner during COVID-19. Mentally Trapped, and Failing Fast and Slow speaks to the stresses of being socially isolated and anxieties about the future with those tensions flowing to and from men’s relationships. Featured were fast-tracked endings in terms of many participants knowing early-on the partnership was over, amid drawn out finishes wherein men’s relationships gradually ended with the easement of COVID-19 restrictions. Introspections and Moving On varied in that many men were intent on processing and deconstructing all that happened in (and to end) their relationship. Men’s learnings were leveraged through accessing professional and peer supports to promote self-growth and purposefully build healthier intimate partnerships. The study findings affirm the need for gender-responsive mental health promotion programs to equip men with relationship skills, while also underscoring the necessity for services dedicated to addressing post-COVID-19 injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study objective was to investigate geographical variation of uncertainty stress and life stress among university students in China. Respondents comprised 11,954 students from 50 universities and 31 provinces in China's mainland. Respondents completed the extended version of Global Health Professional Student Survey (GHPSS) on Tobacco Control in China, which added additional health, mental stress, and behavioural items on original version, and regional variables were retrieved from the National Bureau of Statistics database. Both unadjusted and adjusted methods were used in the logistic regression analysis. The prevalence of high uncertainty stress was 19.60% (95% CI: 15.90%, 23.30%), while the prevalence of life stress was 8.60% (95% CI: 7.20%, 10.70%). The prevalence rates varied significantly across the 31 provinces. The random parameters for uncertainty stress and life stress were statistically significant at the 0.01 level, with values of 0.2593 and 0.3971, respectively. The geographical distribution revealed two high uncertainty stress zones between the east coast and the middle area, as well as in the west area from south to north. High life stress, on the other hand, was concentrated in the central area. Multilevel logistic regression showed province level per capita disposal income of households partly contributed to uncertainty stress (OR = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.36, 0.94) and life stress (OR = 0.59, 95% CI: 0.52, 0.89). These findings underscore the importance of environmental contribution to mental stress among university students. Given that college students' mental stress is high, there is a need for environmental measurements to prevent and address multiple perceived stress in students., (© 2025 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Introduction: Loneliness is a significant global public health issue associated with a range of negative health outcomes. Men experiencing loneliness are at increased risk for depression; however, limited research has focused on mechanisms that explain the relationship between men's loneliness and depression. Existential isolation, the lack of feeling deeply understood by others, may be an important element that provides insight into how loneliness is related to men's depression over time, as evidence suggests that masculine norms may impair men's abilities to seek out help and experience emotional intimacy. The purpose of this study was to examine existential isolation as mediator between men's loneliness and depression over time. We hypothesized that the relationship between men's baseline loneliness and depression six months later would be mediated by their sense of feeling understood at three months., Materials and Methods: An international community sample of men (n = 300) were recruited from the men's mental health website HeadsUpGuys and completed anonymous online surveys at three time points, including baseline, three months, and six months. The longitudinal design involved self-reported assessment of participants' loneliness, sense of feeling deeply understood, and depressive symptoms at all timepoints., Results: The mediation model revealed men's perception of feeling deeply understood by others to be a significant temporal mediator of the association between loneliness and depression., Conclusions: Interventions that reduce or prevent men's loneliness and existential isolation may significantly reduce men's depression risk., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Masculine norms of toughness and self-reliance can discourage help-seeking among elite athletes who are men. Effective ways to leverage masculine norms for help-seeking is a relatively unexplored area in athlete mental health. The study aimed to investigate how masculine health-related values measured by the Intentions Masculine Values Scale (IMVS) affect help-seeking behaviours among male elite rugby players., Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 220 Japanese male elite rugby players in the Japan Rugby League One (response rate: 40.6%). Participants completed an online survey assessing help-seeking knowledge, attitudes and behaviours, along with masculine health-related values using the IMVS. Psychological safety within sports settings was evaluated using the Sport Psychological Safety Inventory (SPSI). Multiple regression analyses examined relationships between help-seeking behaviours and IMVS/SPSI., Results: The Open and Selfless IMVS value was significantly associated with help-seeking knowledge (β=0.059, p=0.009) and attitudes (β=0.064, p=0.006), increasing recognition of the need for help and willingness to seek it. However, no significant association with actual help-seeking behaviour was found (β=-0.006, p=0.774). The Healthy and Autonomous IMVS value was associated with lower help-seeking behaviour (β=0.060, p=0.010), indicating higher autonomy may inhibit seeking professional support. The SPSI was not significantly related to help-seeking measures., Conclusion: Findings highlight critical gaps between intention and actual help-seeking behaviour among male elite athletes. Further research is needed to explore additional cultural and organisational factors that may better explain help-seeking behaviour and inform effective intervention strategies., Competing Interests: None declared., (Copyright © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ Group.)

Public awareness about the connections between men's alcohol use and poor health outcomes, including increased male suicide risk, has led to reduced consumption and increased use of nonalcoholic beverages-most prominently nonalcoholic beer (NAB). Marketed as a healthy substitution option (i.e., periodically switching to an NAB rather than abstaining from alcoholic beer), the rapidly growing NAB sector might be somewhat redemptive, wherein the alcoholic beer industry (as the predominant producers of NAB) is selling harm reduction to men, albeit for profit. The commercial determinants of NAB are, however, complex and have significant implications for legislation and policy. For example, in Canada, NAB is exempt from alcoholic beer excise duty but considered beer for the goods and services and harmonized sales taxes. Coupled with industry production costs and profit margins, these taxes contribute to NAB and alcoholic beer retail price parity. From a public health perspective, there are also concerns about increasing alcoholic beer brand recognition and sales revenue by extending NAB visibility in more places (e.g., supermarkets), contexts (e.g., taking medication), and activities (e.g., driving). The current article highlights (1) the connections between men's alcohol use and health risks, ahead of discussing, (2) the rise of NAB, and mapping (3) NAB legislation and policy implications. We conclude with a discussion about the redemption, revenue, and men's harm reduction potentials, pragmatically arguing the need to both regulate and incentivize NAB. Proposed are promising directions for future research with the goal of reducing men's alcohol use and associated harms., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.