The DOI matches its Crossref record; 39 of the 39 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Gender differences in preferences for psychological treatment, coping strategies, and triggers to help-seeking
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: There is some evidence that men and women deal with stress in different ways; for example, a meta-analysis found that women prefer to focus on emotions as a coping strategy more than men do. However, sex differences in preferences for therapy is a subject little explored. DESIGN: A cross-sectional online survey. METHOD: Participants (115 men and 232 women) were recruited via relevant websites and social media. The survey described therapies and asked participants how much they liked each. Their coping strategies and help-seeking behaviour were assessed too. RESULTS: Survey data were analysed using multiple linear regression. After familywise adjustment of the alpha for multiple testing to p < .0125, and controlling for other relevant variables, men liked support groups more than women did (β = -.163, p < .010), used sex or pornography to cope with stress more than women did (Exp[B] = .280, p < .0002), and thought that there is a lack of male-friendly options more than women did (Exp[B] = .264, p < .002). The majority of participants expressed no preference for the sex of their therapist, but of those who did, men were only slightly more likely to prefer a female therapist whereas women were much more likely to prefer females (p < .0004). Even after familywise adjustment, there were still more significant findings than would be expected by chance (p < .001, two-tailed). CONCLUSIONS: Although there are many similarities in the preferences of men and women regarding therapy, our findings support the hypothesis that men and women show statistically significant differences of relevance to clinical psychologists. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Men are less inclined than women to seek help for psychological issues This study demonstrates that men and women show significant differences in some aspects of therapy, coping behaviour, and help-seeking It is possible that men would be more inclined to seek help if therapies catered more for men's preferences Practitioners can learn to improve the success of their practice by taking the gender of clients into account.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“As widely studied, in general, men are more reticent to search for psychological support compared to women (Liddon et al., 2018; Seidler et al., 2018)”
Citations
Cites
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (1983) · Cited by 79,882
A simulation study of the number of events per variable in logistic regression analysis
Peduzzi, P., Concato, J., Kemper, E., Holford, T. R., & Feinstein, A. R. (1996) · Journal of Clinical Epidemiology · doi:10.1016/s0895-4356(96)00236-3 · Cited by 9,655
Biobehavioral responses to stress in females: Tend-and-befriend, not fight-or-flight.
Taylor, S. E., Klein, L. C., Lewis, B. P., Gruenewald, T. L., Gurung, R. A. R., & Updegraff, J. A. (2000) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.107.3.411 · Cited by 3,308
Clement, S., Schauman, O., Graham, T., Maggioni, F., Evans-Lacko, S., Bezborodovs, N., Morgan, C., Rüsch, N., Brown, J. S. L., & Thornicroft, G. (2015) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291714000129 · Cited by 3,152
Men, masculinity, and the contexts of help seeking
Addis, M. E., & Mahalik, J. R. (2003) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/0003-066x.58.1.5 · Cited by 2,761
Multiple Comparison Procedures
Hochberg, Y., & Tamhane, A. C. (1987) · Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics · doi:10.1002/9780470316672 · Cited by 2,389
Multiple Comparison Procedures
Hahs-Vaughn, D., & Lomax, R. (2013) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203137819-17 · Cited by 2,132
Sex Differences in Coping Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review and an Examination of Relative Coping
Tamres, L. K., Janicki, D., & Helgeson, V. S. (2002) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr0601_1 · Cited by 2,044 · cited 3×
“These types of behaviours can be understood as distraction strategies, a method of coping which is generally more likely to be used by men (Tamres et al., 2002).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialGender differences in sexuality: A meta-analysis.
Oliver, M. B., & Hyde, J. S. (1993) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.114.1.29 · Cited by 1,134
(2016) · City Research Online (City University London) · Cited by 747
Research works printed but not linked: 7
- Brook L., 1992, British social attitudes cumulative sourcebook: First 6 surveys
- Bullen K., 2016, Achieving representation in psychology: A BPS response, The Psychologist, 29
- Golden T., 2013, The way men heal
- Holloway K. Seager M. &Barry J. A.(in review).Are clinical psychologists and psychotherapists overlooking the gender‐related needs of their clients?
- Kingerlee R., 2014, Engaging with the emotional lives of men: Designing and promoting male‐specific services and interventions, The Psychologist, 24, 418
- Wilkins D.(2010).Untold problems. A review of the essential issues in the mental health of men and boys. Men's Health Forum. Retrieved fromhttps://www.menshealthforum.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf/untold_problems.pdf
- Wright K., 2016, Gender difference in changes in coping strategies: The effectiveness of brief therapy provided through an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) in the U.K, New Male Studies, 5, 88
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Renn, B. N., Hoeft, T. J., Lee, H. S., Bauer, A. M., & Areán, P. A. (2019) · npj Digital Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41746-019-0077-1 · Cited by 140
“A recent study found that women are more likely to engage in online treatment than men, suggesting that gender remains another barrier in the use of psychotherapy.(28,41) Unfortunately, we are not able to discern if any of the concerns and questions raised here were specific to gender groups.”
BackgroundThe Influence of Demographics and Personality on COVID-19 Coping in Young Adults
Volk, A. A., Brazil, K. J., Franklin-Luther, P., Dane, A. V., & Vaillancourt, T. (2021) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2020.110398 · Cited by 120
“…nature of gender (Matsuno & Budge, 2017), the current literature on COVID-19 has focused primarily on differences in the behavioral responses of men and women to COVID-19, perhaps due to distinct differences found in men's and women's general behavior and coping responses (Liddon et al., 2018).”
Comstock, E. M., Pierre, R. G. S., & Mackiernan, Y. D. (1981) · PubMed · Cited by 116
The challenges and experiences of psychotherapists working remotely during the coronavirus* pandemic
McBeath, A. G., du Plock, S., & Bager‐Charleson, S. (2020) · Counselling and Psychotherapy Research · doi:10.1002/capr.12326 · Cited by 96
People Who Die by Suicide Without Receiving Mental Health Services: A Systematic Review
Tang, S., Reily, N. M., Arena, A. F., Batterham, P. J., Calear, A. L., Carter, G. L., Mackinnon, A. J., & Christensen, H. (2022) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.736948 · Cited by 89
“This disparity may be due to men’s higher levels of stigma toward mental illness and help-seeking (78–82) and/or lack of services that align with men’s preferences (83).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Liddon, L., Kingerlee, R., & Barry, J. A.
- Affiliations
- Northumbria University (GB)
- Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Barry, John A.
- ORCID
- Barry, John A.
- Venue
- British Journal of Clinical Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2017-07-09
- Volume
- 57
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 42-58
- ISSN
- 0144-6657 (ISSN-L)
- 2044-8260
- OpenAlex
- W2733481773
- Cited by
- 387
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 51 · 2025: 53 · 2024: 59 · 2023: 60 · 2022: 51 · 2021: 49 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 10
- FWCI
- 34.62
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- British Journal of Clinical Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Northumbria Research Link (Northumbria University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Roles and Identity Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- gender differences, help-seeking, coping strategies, stress coping, support groups, pornography use
- MeSH terms
- Help-Seeking Behavior, Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Cross-Sectional Studies, Emotions, Female, Gender Identity, Humans, Male, Surveys and Questionnaires, Education, Distance
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
