The relationship between male role norms and psychological help seeking barriers

Male role norms include prescriptive and proscriptive norms. Therefore, conforming to male role norms connotes restriction on some of men's behavior. Psychological help seeking behavior is among these restricted behaviors. For this reason, the relationship between male role norms and psychological help barriers was examined in the study. One of the quantitative research designs, the correlational research design was adopted. Personal information form, Male Role Norms Scale and Barriers to Seeking Psychological Help Scale were used for data collection. The participants of the study are university students and graduates between the ages of 18-30. Data were collected from a total of 870 young adults, 505 (58%) female and 365 (42%) male, selected by convenience sampling method. The results of the research show that males adopt more traditional male roles than females. Similarly, it is seen that the participants who haven't received help in the past adopted more traditional male roles than those who have. There was no difference on the level adopting male role norms between participants who have a romantic relationship and those dont. In addition, there was no difference between men and women in terms of the level of psychological help seeking barriers. Participants who haven't received psychological help in the past experiences more psychological help seeking barriers than those who have. Single participants also experiences more psychological help seeking barriers than those have a romantic relationship. Participants who think that "A man should avoid anything feminine" are afraid of being stigmatized by sociecty and they feel less worthy if they receive psychological help. In addition, these people have less knowledge about the psychological help processes. Similarly, participants who think "A man should be tough." are more afraid of being stigmatized by the society and they feel less worthy if they receive psychological help. In addition, these people trust the professional less. People who think "A man should be strong/should have high status." have difficulty in self-disclosing. Keywords: Male role norms, psychological help, barriers to seek psychological help