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John Oliffe

University of British Columbia, School of Nursing, Faculty Member

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Focusing on masculinities as they pertain to men's health and illness, my research encompasses diverse issues, including prostate cancer, depression, suicide, smoking, cardiac rehabilitation, health promotion, and Canadian immigrant men's health.
Phone: 604-822-7638
Address: 302 6190 Agronomy Rd
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6T 1Z3

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Papers by John Oliffe

HETEROSEXUAL GENDER RELATIONS AND FATHERHOOD: PERCEPTIONS OF NEW FATHERS WHO SMOKE by Jae-Young (Jae-Yung) Kwon

Despite many health promotion efforts to reduce or stop women's smoking during pregnancy and post... more Despite many health promotion efforts to reduce or stop women's smoking during pregnancy and postpartum, less attention has focused on fathers' smoking behaviours. This qualitative study examined interviews conducted with 20 new fathers to describe the connections between gender relations and men's smoking during their partners' pregnancy and the postpartum period. In addressing the question of what fathers' perceive as their partners' strategies to assist them to reduce or quit smoking, three key themes were identified: Supporting autonomy in men's smoking cessation, nagging to challenge men's freedom to smoke, and contempt for men's continued smoking. In addressing the question of how heterosexual gender relations influence fathers' masculine ideals in the context of smoking, two themes were identified: Reconciling to maintain a smoke-free home and smoking to mediate relationships. Social constructionist gender frameworks were used to theorize the findings. The results reveal the importance of constructing tobacco reduction and smoking cessation as a fathering responsibility amid trading on masculine ideals by appealing to men's autonomy, willpower and strength to be smoke-free. iii Preface This research study is based on data collected by a multi-phased research program called Families Controlling and Eliminating Tobacco (FACET) led by Drs. John Oliffe and Joan Bottorff. Permission to conduct secondary analysis was granted by the University of British Columbia ethics board (2006-022). The study was funded through the Investigating Tobacco and Gender (iTAG) research team grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Grant # 62R66082).

The State of Boys and Young Men's Health in BC

A qualitative investigation of mental health promotion among aging gay men

Journal of Mental Health, 2019

Background: Gay men, particularly middle aged and older men (over 40 years of age) experience a d... more Background: Gay men, particularly middle aged and older men (over 40 years of age) experience a disproportionate burden of mental health issues compared to heterosexual men. Despite ample evidence that chronic exposure to structural and interpersonal discrimination negatively affect their mental health, little is known from gay men's perspectives how they understand mental health or their strategies to address their mental health concerns. Aim: This study's aim was to investigate how middle aged and older gay men experience their mental health and the mitigation strategies used to promote mental health. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 men who self-identified as gay. Data were analyzed using an interpretive descriptive approach. Results: Three overarching themes that best illustrate how men perceived their mental health and manage their mental health concerns were identified: gaining perspective, engaging with health services, and promoting and maintaining mental health. Conclusions: This study provides insight into how gay men come to acknowledge the validity of their mental health concerns, engage with health services, and their participation in other activities deemed essential for mental health promotion. These findings are ideally poised to inform development of health resources to promote and protect the mental health of aging gay men.

Community-based men’s health promotion programs: eight lessons learnt and their caveats

Health Promotion International, 2019

Long-standing commentaries about men’s reticence for accessing clinical medical services, along w... more Long-standing commentaries about men’s reticence for accessing clinical medical services, along with the more recent recognition of men’s health inequities, has driven work in community-based men’s health promotion. Indeed, the 2000s have seen rapid growth in community-based programs targeting men, and across this expanse of innovative work, experiential and empirical insights afford some important lessons learnt, and caveats to guide existing and future efforts. The current article offers eight lessons learnt regarding the design, content, recruitment, delivery, evaluation and scaling of community-based men’s health promotion programs. Design lessons include the need to address social determinants of health and men’s health inequities, build activity-based programming, garner men’s permission and affirmation to shift masculine norms, and integrate content to advance men’s health literacy. Also detailed are lessons learnt about men-friendly spaces, recruitment and retention strategi...

Men’s health literacy: a review and recommendations

Health Promotion International, 2019

Although men’s health promotion efforts have attracted programmatic and evaluative research, cons... more Although men’s health promotion efforts have attracted programmatic and evaluative research, conspicuously absent are gendered insights to men’s health literacy. The current scoping review article shares the findings drawn from 12 published articles addressing men’s health literacy in a range of health and illness contexts. Evident was consensus that approaches tailored to men’s everyday language and delivered in familiar community-based spaces were central to advancing men’s health literacy, and, by extension, the effectiveness of men’s health promotion programs. However, most men’s health literacy studies focussed on medical knowledge of disease contexts including prostate and colon cancers, while diversity was evident regards conceptual frameworks and/or methods and measures for evaluating men’s health literacy. Despite evidence that low levels of health literacy fuel stigma and men’s reticence for health help-seeking, and that tailoring programs to health literacy levels is requ...

Comparison of Developers’ and End-Users’ Perspectives About Smoking Cessation Support Through the Crush the Crave App (Preprint)

BACKGROUND High smoking rates among end-users, combined with their high rates of app use, render ... more BACKGROUND High smoking rates among end-users, combined with their high rates of app use, render this age group as a particularly captive audience for quit smoking apps. There is emerging evidence that apps are an effective way to support smoking cessation among end-users. How the expectations behind the design of apps align with the needs and preferences of end-users, and if this differs by gender, is poorly understood, limiting the ability to evaluate and scale these interventions. OBJECTIVE The objective of this qualitative case study was to detail how the overall design approach of Crush the Crave (CTC), a quit smoking app that targets end-users, compares with young adult women’s and men’s perspectives and experiences, with consideration for the influence of gender. METHODS Semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 developers involved in the development of CTC and 31 young adult CTC users. Data were analyzed inductively to derive thematic findings of the perceived pros an...

Men’s Perspectives of a Gender-Sensitized Health Promotion Program Targeting Healthy Eating, Active Living, and Social Connectedness

American Journal of Men's Health, 2018

Men in high income countries have poorer dietary habits and higher rates of overweight and obesit... more Men in high income countries have poorer dietary habits and higher rates of overweight and obesity than women. A major challenge with engaging men in health promotion is the perception that attention to one’s health runs counter to masculine identities. Contemporary health promotion programs are believed to hold little “manly” appeal and often fail to engage and retain men. The HAT TRICK program was designed to engage men with their health by delivering an intervention in collaboration with a semi-professional ice hockey team. The program included 12 weekly sessions promoting healthy eating, active living, and social connectedness among men. Gender-sensitized elements were reflected in the program design, setting, content, and delivery. Semistructured telephone interviews were conducted with 23 men to explore perspectives of their participation in the gender-sensitized intervention. Participants were white (100%) with a mean age of 53 years ( SD ± 9.9), Body Mass Index (BMI) of 37 k...

Understanding the meaning and role of gifts given to Ugandan mothers in maternity care settings: 'The help they give when they've seen how different you are

Sociology of health & illness, Jan 23, 2016

The provision of gifts to new mothers in Uganda is laden with significance that varies by the soc... more The provision of gifts to new mothers in Uganda is laden with significance that varies by the social location of the giver and receiver and the context and conditions under which the gift is made available. Here, we examine the act of gift giving and receiving within a Ugandan maternity care setting, describing the connections between these material objects and social relations. A study investigating the social organisation of maternity care in post-conflict northern Uganda found that gift-giving to new mothers functioned to create a material and discursive context wherein women's desire to access these goods was leveraged to create an incentive to attend formal maternity care during pregnancy and for delivery. In this article we describe the material and discursive processes surrounding gift-giving to new mothers in this global South health care setting. This article contributes critical analyses of the function of gifts in healthcare settings as constructing shared identities,...

2013 Suicide among EA in NA

No Man Left Behind: Effectively Engaging Male Military Veterans in Counseling

American journal of men's health, Jan 4, 2016

Ex-military men have emerged as a vulnerable subgroup for mental illness amid long-standing trend... more Ex-military men have emerged as a vulnerable subgroup for mental illness amid long-standing trends signaling men's reticence to seek professional help. Less explored is how men engage or disengage when they actually do enter helping programs. Contrasting decades of quantitative research pairing masculine ideology with low help seeking (i.e., describing the problem), this article draws on qualitative data to distill factors that help men become engaged and committed to counseling (i.e., identifying solutions). Shared is an evaluation of a treatment program with high success rates and virtually no dropouts-a unique occurrence in men's counseling. Enhanced Critical Incident Technique data suggest that helping men feel competent and free from judgment in the company of down-to-earth peers and genuine practitioners are instrumental in helping men draw benefit from counseling. While appealing to male gender roles may be critical in recruiting men to counseling, men can transition ...

Men's mental health: Spaces and places that work for men

Canadian family physician Médecin de famille canadien, 2016

What guys say, and what they do: Urban young men’s use of health and social services

Stigma in Male Depression and Suicide: A Canadian Sex Comparison Study

Community mental health journal, Jan 5, 2016

Stigma in men's depression and suicide can restrict help-seeking, reduce treatment compliance... more Stigma in men's depression and suicide can restrict help-seeking, reduce treatment compliance and deter individuals from confiding in friends and family. In this article we report sex comparison findings from a national survey of English-speaking adult Canadians about stigmatized beliefs concerning male depression and suicide. Among respondents without direct experience of depression or suicide (n = 541) more than a third endorsed the view that men with depression are unpredictable. Overall, a greater proportion of males endorsed stigmatizing views about male depression compared to female respondents. A greater proportion of female respondents endorsed items indicating that men who suicide are disconnected, lost and lonely. Male and female respondents with direct personal experience of depression or suicide (n = 360) strongly endorsed stigmatizing attitudes toward themselves and a greater proportion of male respondents indicated that they would be embarrassed about seeking help ...

Nurse Practitioners and Men's Primary Health Care

American journal of men's health, Jan 26, 2015

Though life expectancy sex differences are decreasing in many Western countries, men experience h... more Though life expectancy sex differences are decreasing in many Western countries, men experience higher mortality rates at all ages. Men are often reluctant to seek medical care because health help-seeking is strongly linked to femininity, male weakness, and vulnerability. Many men are also more likely to access emergency care services in response to injury and/or severe pain instead of engaging primary health care (PHC) services. Nurse practitioners are well positioned to increase men's engagement with PHC to waylay the pressure on emergency services and advance the well-being of men. This article demonstrates how nurse practitioners can work with men in PHC settings to optimize men's self-health and illness prevention and management. Four recommendations are discussed: (1) leveling the hierarchies, (2) talking it through, (3) seeing diversity within patterns, and (4) augmenting face-to-face PHC services. In terms of leveling the hierarchies nurse practitioners can engage me...

“Dulling the Edges”

Health Education & Behavior, 2015

Background. The death of a male friend can be challenging for men because expressions of grief ca... more Background. The death of a male friend can be challenging for men because expressions of grief can be governed and restrained by dominant ideals of masculinity. It is common for young men to engage in health risk practices, such as alcohol overuse, to deal with feelings of sadness. Objective. This qualitative study investigated the ways that young men use alcohol in the process of grieving the accidental death of a male friend. Method. Participants included 35 men 19 to 25 years old and 22 men 26 to 35 years old who participated in individual semistructured interviews between 2010 and 2012. Results. Methodology informed by grounded theory and narrative analysis was used to analyse and interpret the transcribed interviews, focusing on the ways that men used alcohol in the grief process. Through data analysis we inductively derived three themes: (1) Using Alcohol to Dull the Pain, (2) Using Alcohol to Purge Sadness, and (3) Troubled Drinking. Conclusions: This study provides evidence ...

Picturing Masculinities: Using Photo-elicitation in Men's Health Research

American journal of men's health, Jan 18, 2015

This article explores the use of photo-elicitation methods in two men's health studies. Discu... more This article explores the use of photo-elicitation methods in two men's health studies. Discussed are the ways that photo-elicitation can facilitate conversation about health issues that might be otherwise challenging to access. In the first study, researchers explored 35 young men's experiences of grief following the accidental death of a male peer. In the second study, researchers describe 64 fathers' perceptions about their roles and identity with respect to child safety and risk. Photographs and accompanying narratives were analyzed and results were theorized using a masculinities framework. Discussed are the benefits of photo-elicitation, which include facilitating conversation about emotions, garnering insight into the structures and identities of masculinity in the context of men's health. Considered also are some methodological challenges amid recommendations for ensuring reflexive practices. Based on the findings it is concluded that photo-elicitation can in...

Men, Masculinities, and Hemophilia

American journal of men's health, Jan 29, 2015

Hemophilia is a congenital bleeding disorder that predominantly affects men. Home intravenous rep... more Hemophilia is a congenital bleeding disorder that predominantly affects men. Home intravenous replacement of missing clotting factor is the most effective treatment; however, the uptake of preventative treatment (also known as prophylaxis) varies among men with hemophilia. The purpose of the current qualitative study was to describe the connections between masculinities and men's (n = 11) experiences of hemophilia across varying age groups. The inductively derived findings revealed bleed-related joint pain as the primary prompt for men to treat or seek medical help. Many men reported experiencing a high number of bleed-related injuries in adolescence, particularly in high school, oftentimes as a result of engaging in idealized masculine physical activities. Though the limitations imposed by hemophilia were contested by most men early on in their lives, as men grow older more conservative approaches were employed both in terms of treatment and activity to reduce the potential for...

Living for the moment: men situating risk-taking after the death of a friend

Sociology of health & illness, 2015

The primary cause of death for men under the age of 30 is unintentional injury and, despite healt... more The primary cause of death for men under the age of 30 is unintentional injury and, despite health-promotion efforts and programme interventions, male injury and death rates have not decreased in recent years. Drawing on 22 interviews from a study of men, risk and grief, we describe how a risk-related tragedy shaped the participants' understandings of and practices of risk-taking. The findings indicate that most participants did not alter their perceptions and engagement in risky practices, which reflected their alignment to masculine ideals within specific communities of practice where risk-taking was normalised and valorised. Continued reliance on risky practices following the death of a friend was predominantly expressed as 'living for the moment,' where caution and safety were framed as conservative practices that undermined and diluted the robustness ideally embodied by this subgroup of young men. Two main themes: living life, accepting death and upping the ante ill...

Masculinity and Work among Older Men who Experience Depression

Faux Hegemony: Masculine Identities among College Men who Experience Depression

HETEROSEXUAL GENDER RELATIONS AND FATHERHOOD: PERCEPTIONS OF NEW FATHERS WHO SMOKE by Jae-Young (Jae-Yung) Kwon

Despite many health promotion efforts to reduce or stop women's smoking during pregnancy and post... more Despite many health promotion efforts to reduce or stop women's smoking during pregnancy and postpartum, less attention has focused on fathers' smoking behaviours. This qualitative study examined interviews conducted with 20 new fathers to describe the connections between gender relations and men's smoking during their partners' pregnancy and the postpartum period. In addressing the question of what fathers' perceive as their partners' strategies to assist them to reduce or quit smoking, three key themes were identified: Supporting autonomy in men's smoking cessation, nagging to challenge men's freedom to smoke, and contempt for men's continued smoking. In addressing the question of how heterosexual gender relations influence fathers' masculine ideals in the context of smoking, two themes were identified: Reconciling to maintain a smoke-free home and smoking to mediate relationships. Social constructionist gender frameworks were used to theorize the findings. The results reveal the importance of constructing tobacco reduction and smoking cessation as a fathering responsibility amid trading on masculine ideals by appealing to men's autonomy, willpower and strength to be smoke-free. iii Preface This research study is based on data collected by a multi-phased research program called Families Controlling and Eliminating Tobacco (FACET) led by Drs. John Oliffe and Joan Bottorff. Permission to conduct secondary analysis was granted by the University of British Columbia ethics board (2006-022). The study was funded through the Investigating Tobacco and Gender (iTAG) research team grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Grant # 62R66082).

The State of Boys and Young Men's Health in BC

A qualitative investigation of mental health promotion among aging gay men

Journal of Mental Health, 2019

Background: Gay men, particularly middle aged and older men (over 40 years of age) experience a d... more Background: Gay men, particularly middle aged and older men (over 40 years of age) experience a disproportionate burden of mental health issues compared to heterosexual men. Despite ample evidence that chronic exposure to structural and interpersonal discrimination negatively affect their mental health, little is known from gay men's perspectives how they understand mental health or their strategies to address their mental health concerns. Aim: This study's aim was to investigate how middle aged and older gay men experience their mental health and the mitigation strategies used to promote mental health. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 men who self-identified as gay. Data were analyzed using an interpretive descriptive approach. Results: Three overarching themes that best illustrate how men perceived their mental health and manage their mental health concerns were identified: gaining perspective, engaging with health services, and promoting and maintaining mental health. Conclusions: This study provides insight into how gay men come to acknowledge the validity of their mental health concerns, engage with health services, and their participation in other activities deemed essential for mental health promotion. These findings are ideally poised to inform development of health resources to promote and protect the mental health of aging gay men.

Community-based men’s health promotion programs: eight lessons learnt and their caveats

Health Promotion International, 2019

Long-standing commentaries about men’s reticence for accessing clinical medical services, along w... more Long-standing commentaries about men’s reticence for accessing clinical medical services, along with the more recent recognition of men’s health inequities, has driven work in community-based men’s health promotion. Indeed, the 2000s have seen rapid growth in community-based programs targeting men, and across this expanse of innovative work, experiential and empirical insights afford some important lessons learnt, and caveats to guide existing and future efforts. The current article offers eight lessons learnt regarding the design, content, recruitment, delivery, evaluation and scaling of community-based men’s health promotion programs. Design lessons include the need to address social determinants of health and men’s health inequities, build activity-based programming, garner men’s permission and affirmation to shift masculine norms, and integrate content to advance men’s health literacy. Also detailed are lessons learnt about men-friendly spaces, recruitment and retention strategi...

Men’s health literacy: a review and recommendations

Health Promotion International, 2019

Although men’s health promotion efforts have attracted programmatic and evaluative research, cons... more Although men’s health promotion efforts have attracted programmatic and evaluative research, conspicuously absent are gendered insights to men’s health literacy. The current scoping review article shares the findings drawn from 12 published articles addressing men’s health literacy in a range of health and illness contexts. Evident was consensus that approaches tailored to men’s everyday language and delivered in familiar community-based spaces were central to advancing men’s health literacy, and, by extension, the effectiveness of men’s health promotion programs. However, most men’s health literacy studies focussed on medical knowledge of disease contexts including prostate and colon cancers, while diversity was evident regards conceptual frameworks and/or methods and measures for evaluating men’s health literacy. Despite evidence that low levels of health literacy fuel stigma and men’s reticence for health help-seeking, and that tailoring programs to health literacy levels is requ...

Comparison of Developers’ and End-Users’ Perspectives About Smoking Cessation Support Through the Crush the Crave App (Preprint)

BACKGROUND High smoking rates among end-users, combined with their high rates of app use, render ... more BACKGROUND High smoking rates among end-users, combined with their high rates of app use, render this age group as a particularly captive audience for quit smoking apps. There is emerging evidence that apps are an effective way to support smoking cessation among end-users. How the expectations behind the design of apps align with the needs and preferences of end-users, and if this differs by gender, is poorly understood, limiting the ability to evaluate and scale these interventions. OBJECTIVE The objective of this qualitative case study was to detail how the overall design approach of Crush the Crave (CTC), a quit smoking app that targets end-users, compares with young adult women’s and men’s perspectives and experiences, with consideration for the influence of gender. METHODS Semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 developers involved in the development of CTC and 31 young adult CTC users. Data were analyzed inductively to derive thematic findings of the perceived pros an...

Men’s Perspectives of a Gender-Sensitized Health Promotion Program Targeting Healthy Eating, Active Living, and Social Connectedness

American Journal of Men's Health, 2018

Men in high income countries have poorer dietary habits and higher rates of overweight and obesit... more Men in high income countries have poorer dietary habits and higher rates of overweight and obesity than women. A major challenge with engaging men in health promotion is the perception that attention to one’s health runs counter to masculine identities. Contemporary health promotion programs are believed to hold little “manly” appeal and often fail to engage and retain men. The HAT TRICK program was designed to engage men with their health by delivering an intervention in collaboration with a semi-professional ice hockey team. The program included 12 weekly sessions promoting healthy eating, active living, and social connectedness among men. Gender-sensitized elements were reflected in the program design, setting, content, and delivery. Semistructured telephone interviews were conducted with 23 men to explore perspectives of their participation in the gender-sensitized intervention. Participants were white (100%) with a mean age of 53 years ( SD ± 9.9), Body Mass Index (BMI) of 37 k...

Understanding the meaning and role of gifts given to Ugandan mothers in maternity care settings: 'The help they give when they've seen how different you are

Sociology of health & illness, Jan 23, 2016

The provision of gifts to new mothers in Uganda is laden with significance that varies by the soc... more The provision of gifts to new mothers in Uganda is laden with significance that varies by the social location of the giver and receiver and the context and conditions under which the gift is made available. Here, we examine the act of gift giving and receiving within a Ugandan maternity care setting, describing the connections between these material objects and social relations. A study investigating the social organisation of maternity care in post-conflict northern Uganda found that gift-giving to new mothers functioned to create a material and discursive context wherein women's desire to access these goods was leveraged to create an incentive to attend formal maternity care during pregnancy and for delivery. In this article we describe the material and discursive processes surrounding gift-giving to new mothers in this global South health care setting. This article contributes critical analyses of the function of gifts in healthcare settings as constructing shared identities,...

2013 Suicide among EA in NA

No Man Left Behind: Effectively Engaging Male Military Veterans in Counseling

American journal of men's health, Jan 4, 2016

Ex-military men have emerged as a vulnerable subgroup for mental illness amid long-standing trend... more Ex-military men have emerged as a vulnerable subgroup for mental illness amid long-standing trends signaling men's reticence to seek professional help. Less explored is how men engage or disengage when they actually do enter helping programs. Contrasting decades of quantitative research pairing masculine ideology with low help seeking (i.e., describing the problem), this article draws on qualitative data to distill factors that help men become engaged and committed to counseling (i.e., identifying solutions). Shared is an evaluation of a treatment program with high success rates and virtually no dropouts-a unique occurrence in men's counseling. Enhanced Critical Incident Technique data suggest that helping men feel competent and free from judgment in the company of down-to-earth peers and genuine practitioners are instrumental in helping men draw benefit from counseling. While appealing to male gender roles may be critical in recruiting men to counseling, men can transition ...

Men's mental health: Spaces and places that work for men

Canadian family physician Médecin de famille canadien, 2016

What guys say, and what they do: Urban young men’s use of health and social services

Stigma in Male Depression and Suicide: A Canadian Sex Comparison Study

Community mental health journal, Jan 5, 2016

Stigma in men's depression and suicide can restrict help-seeking, reduce treatment compliance... more Stigma in men's depression and suicide can restrict help-seeking, reduce treatment compliance and deter individuals from confiding in friends and family. In this article we report sex comparison findings from a national survey of English-speaking adult Canadians about stigmatized beliefs concerning male depression and suicide. Among respondents without direct experience of depression or suicide (n = 541) more than a third endorsed the view that men with depression are unpredictable. Overall, a greater proportion of males endorsed stigmatizing views about male depression compared to female respondents. A greater proportion of female respondents endorsed items indicating that men who suicide are disconnected, lost and lonely. Male and female respondents with direct personal experience of depression or suicide (n = 360) strongly endorsed stigmatizing attitudes toward themselves and a greater proportion of male respondents indicated that they would be embarrassed about seeking help ...

Nurse Practitioners and Men's Primary Health Care

American journal of men's health, Jan 26, 2015

Though life expectancy sex differences are decreasing in many Western countries, men experience h... more Though life expectancy sex differences are decreasing in many Western countries, men experience higher mortality rates at all ages. Men are often reluctant to seek medical care because health help-seeking is strongly linked to femininity, male weakness, and vulnerability. Many men are also more likely to access emergency care services in response to injury and/or severe pain instead of engaging primary health care (PHC) services. Nurse practitioners are well positioned to increase men's engagement with PHC to waylay the pressure on emergency services and advance the well-being of men. This article demonstrates how nurse practitioners can work with men in PHC settings to optimize men's self-health and illness prevention and management. Four recommendations are discussed: (1) leveling the hierarchies, (2) talking it through, (3) seeing diversity within patterns, and (4) augmenting face-to-face PHC services. In terms of leveling the hierarchies nurse practitioners can engage me...

“Dulling the Edges”

Health Education & Behavior, 2015

Background. The death of a male friend can be challenging for men because expressions of grief ca... more Background. The death of a male friend can be challenging for men because expressions of grief can be governed and restrained by dominant ideals of masculinity. It is common for young men to engage in health risk practices, such as alcohol overuse, to deal with feelings of sadness. Objective. This qualitative study investigated the ways that young men use alcohol in the process of grieving the accidental death of a male friend. Method. Participants included 35 men 19 to 25 years old and 22 men 26 to 35 years old who participated in individual semistructured interviews between 2010 and 2012. Results. Methodology informed by grounded theory and narrative analysis was used to analyse and interpret the transcribed interviews, focusing on the ways that men used alcohol in the grief process. Through data analysis we inductively derived three themes: (1) Using Alcohol to Dull the Pain, (2) Using Alcohol to Purge Sadness, and (3) Troubled Drinking. Conclusions: This study provides evidence ...

Picturing Masculinities: Using Photo-elicitation in Men's Health Research

American journal of men's health, Jan 18, 2015

This article explores the use of photo-elicitation methods in two men's health studies. Discu... more This article explores the use of photo-elicitation methods in two men's health studies. Discussed are the ways that photo-elicitation can facilitate conversation about health issues that might be otherwise challenging to access. In the first study, researchers explored 35 young men's experiences of grief following the accidental death of a male peer. In the second study, researchers describe 64 fathers' perceptions about their roles and identity with respect to child safety and risk. Photographs and accompanying narratives were analyzed and results were theorized using a masculinities framework. Discussed are the benefits of photo-elicitation, which include facilitating conversation about emotions, garnering insight into the structures and identities of masculinity in the context of men's health. Considered also are some methodological challenges amid recommendations for ensuring reflexive practices. Based on the findings it is concluded that photo-elicitation can in...

Men, Masculinities, and Hemophilia

American journal of men's health, Jan 29, 2015

Hemophilia is a congenital bleeding disorder that predominantly affects men. Home intravenous rep... more Hemophilia is a congenital bleeding disorder that predominantly affects men. Home intravenous replacement of missing clotting factor is the most effective treatment; however, the uptake of preventative treatment (also known as prophylaxis) varies among men with hemophilia. The purpose of the current qualitative study was to describe the connections between masculinities and men's (n = 11) experiences of hemophilia across varying age groups. The inductively derived findings revealed bleed-related joint pain as the primary prompt for men to treat or seek medical help. Many men reported experiencing a high number of bleed-related injuries in adolescence, particularly in high school, oftentimes as a result of engaging in idealized masculine physical activities. Though the limitations imposed by hemophilia were contested by most men early on in their lives, as men grow older more conservative approaches were employed both in terms of treatment and activity to reduce the potential for...

Living for the moment: men situating risk-taking after the death of a friend

Sociology of health & illness, 2015

The primary cause of death for men under the age of 30 is unintentional injury and, despite healt... more The primary cause of death for men under the age of 30 is unintentional injury and, despite health-promotion efforts and programme interventions, male injury and death rates have not decreased in recent years. Drawing on 22 interviews from a study of men, risk and grief, we describe how a risk-related tragedy shaped the participants' understandings of and practices of risk-taking. The findings indicate that most participants did not alter their perceptions and engagement in risky practices, which reflected their alignment to masculine ideals within specific communities of practice where risk-taking was normalised and valorised. Continued reliance on risky practices following the death of a friend was predominantly expressed as 'living for the moment,' where caution and safety were framed as conservative practices that undermined and diluted the robustness ideally embodied by this subgroup of young men. Two main themes: living life, accepting death and upping the ante ill...

Masculinity and Work among Older Men who Experience Depression

Faux Hegemony: Masculine Identities among College Men who Experience Depression

Designing and Conducting gender, sex, health research

by Lorraine Greaves PhD and John Oliffe