The Role of First-Person Depression Storytelling Online Video on Men’s Self-Stigma of Seeking Help, Traditional Masculinity Ideology, and Psychological Help-Seeking Attitudes

Abstract

Men are reluctant to seek psychological help as doing so may label them as weak and vulnerable. Thus, we tested whether a first-person storytelling video could buffer men’s self-stigma of seeking help associated with traditional masculinity ideology. Adult men (N = 396; Mage = 35.62) were randomly assigned and exposed to one of three conditions: (1) control (nothing), (2) male-sensitive brochure, (3) male-sensitive first-person storytelling video. Controlling for pre-existing depressive symptoms, multi-group path analyses with bootstrapping revealed that greater traditional masculinity ideology was associated with lower psychological help-seeking attitudes via increased self-stigma of seeking help, but this indirect effect was not significant for the video group. The direct effect was significantly lower in the video group compared to the brochure and control groups. The findings suggest that brief male-sensitive storytelling videos may be useful clinical and psychoeducational tools to help men re-examine their resistance toward seeking psychological help for depression.