Patriarchal beliefs and men's mental health in India: Associations with emotional expressivity, help-seeking behaviour, and family relationships.

In this study, the association between conformity to masculine norms and emotional expressivity, help-seeking behaviour and psychological distress among men in India were explored as well as the potential mediating role of family relationships. A total of 200 men aged 21-50 were sampled using purposive sampling for the study, which was conducted using an online survey. The participants filled out the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory-22 (CMNI-22), Emotional Expressivity Scale (EES), General Help-Seeking Questionnaire (GHSQ), and Brief Family Relationship Scale (BFRS). The Pearson correlations and mediation analyses were run in SPSS using Hayes' PROCESS Macro (Model 4). Emotional expressivity (r = -0.311, p < .01) and help-seeking behaviour (r = -0.218, p < .01) were significantly negatively associated with conformity to masculine norms, while psychological distress was not significantly associated with conformity to masculine norms (r = 0.084). Family relationships were also negatively and significantly correlated with conformity to masculine norms (r = -0.161, p < .05). The associations between masculine norm conformity and emotional expressivity and help-seeking behaviour were not significantly mediated by family relationships. By contrast, a large indirect association between masculine norm conformity and psychological distress was mediated by family relationships (B = 0.0366, 95% CI [0.0015, 0.0718]). The results of this study suggest an outcome-specific pattern of involvement of family relationships. Family relationships were not significantly associated with the behavioural associations between masculine norm conformity and emotional expressivity or help-seeking but they were significantly indirectly associated with psychological distress. The results underscore the significance of taking into account the family relationship in conjunction with the constraining masculine norms when studying men's psychological wellbeing in the Indian context. The conclusions drawn should be viewed as associations and not as causal pathways as per the cross-sectional design. Future studies with different samples and different methods of measurement are required for longitudinal research on the temporal relationships between masculine norms, family relationships and psychological outcomes.