Acceptability of Men’s Externalizing Depression Constructs Among Black American Men and Middle-Aged and Older White Men

Abstract

Research on the dissemination and implementation of gender-based care for men has rarely considered diversity within the male-identifying population. The present study evaluated the acceptability of men’s externalizing depression (MED) constructs across purposive samples of men understudied in the MED literature and at higher risk for MED-related outcomes (Black American men and middle-aged and older White men). Following brief psychoeducation, participants rated MED constructs for comprehensibility and perceived clinical value. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, we examined how attitudes varied by sample and experimentally-manipulated psychoeducational variables pertaining to different MED conceptual models. Across samples and psychoeducation conditions, we observed similarly strong levels of acceptability for MED as a gender-based conceptualization of mixed internalizing-externalizing symptoms. Small differences emerged as a function of sample-psychoeducation interactions. Quantitative and qualitative data converged to suggest race-gender intersections influence men’s construal of psychological symptoms. Overall, results supported MED as an acceptable formulation of symptoms across multiple subpopulations of men in the context of an international, online community sample.