Zac Seidler

• Masters of Clinical Psychology and PhD
• Senior Research Fellow at University of Melbourne

Background Men represent the majority of suicide deaths globally and men are more likely to die by suicide without contact with formal mental health services. In Australia, three-quarters of suicide deaths are men. If services were better able to meet their needs, men might be more likely to seek help. In this scoping review, we sought to describe...

The role of externalizing symptoms in men’s experiences of depression, including the link between externalizing symptoms and traditional masculinity ideologies (TMI), has emerged as a key consideration in men’s mental health. Within this context, men’s strategies to manage uncomfortable thoughts and emotions (e.g. restricted emotionality, alexithym...

There is growing consensus for upskilling the health care workforce on gender-responsive strategies to more effectively connect and respond to men during health care encounters. To inform health practitioner education, the primary aim of this study was to gain insights from a diverse sample of men in Australia on their experiences and expectations...

Objectives: There is evidence of increasing rates of hospital presentations for suicidal crisis, and emergency departments (EDs) are described as an intervention point for suicide prevention. Males account for three in every four suicides in Ireland and are up to twice as likely as females to eventually die by suicide following a hospital presentat...

Emotional intimacy is key to intimate partner relationship quality and satisfaction. For sexual minority men, queer and feminist theorists consistently link emotional intimacy to diverse sexual practices and partnership dynamics formulated within the relationship. This Photovoice study adds to those insights by drawing on individual photovoice inte...

OBJECTIVES Developing the capacity of the health system, and the practitioners within it, to provide quality gender responsive care to men and boys remains critical to advancing men's health, and reducing health inequities amongst men. The aim for this study was to undertake a formative evaluation of Australian university health curricula for men's...

High conformity to traditional masculinity ideologies (TMI) is associated with lower use of psychotherapy, higher self-stigmatization, and poor mental health outcomes among men. However, the role of conformity to TMI in relation to psychotherapy dropout is still unclear. The present study aims to clarify the relationship between conformity to TMI a...

Peer support has a long history of helping people navigate mental health challenges and is increasingly utilized within men’s mental health promotion initiatives. Despite considerable research conceptualizing and evaluating peer support in various contexts, little is known about the gendered dimensions of men’s peer support and mutual help for ment...

Gender-responsive healthcare is critical to advancing men’s health given that masculinities intersect with other social determinants to impact help-seeking, engagement with primary healthcare, and patient outcomes. A scoping review was undertaken with the aim to synthesize gender-responsive approaches used by healthcare providers (HCPs) to engage m...

Background While there have been calls over the last 15 years for the inclusion of training in sex and gender-based medicine in medical school curricula and to sustain such improvements through a more gender responsive health system, little progress has been made. A related objective of the Australian National Men’s Health Strategy (2020-30) is to...

Objective Masculinities have been explored in men with testicular cancer (TC), though limited contemporary research is available on traditional masculine norms important to masculine self‐perception. The purpose of this research was to explore the discourse of TC experience in relation to masculine self‐perception. Methods A qualitative descriptiv...

Improved engagement of men in psychotherapy is an essential element in improving male health outcomes. This trial examined whether the Men in Mind intervention improved practitioners’ self-rated clinical competencies to engage and respond to male clients in therapy. A parallel, single-blind, wait-list randomized controlled trial was conducted with...

Suicide is a major public health concern and leading cause of death among men in Canada. This study reports the feasibility and acceptability of Buddy Up, a peer-based suicide prevention campaign for men. A mixed-methods approach was used to analyze respondent survey questionnaires (n = 48) and individual participant interviews (n = 19) collected f...

How can clinicians identify early male-identified patients who are at high risk for psychotherapy dropout? Because male-identified patients are already at higher risk of discontinuing psychotherapy early, but by no means all do so, it is important to identify person-specific factors that provide clinicians with information as to whether their male-...

Males account for three in every four suicides in many nations worldwide. Crisis presentations to emergency departments (EDs) in the context of suicidal ideation or self-harm are increasing, particularly in males. This cross-sectional, observational study therefore aimed to profile the characteristics of ED presentations for suicidal ideation and s...

Males account for three in every four suicides in many nations worldwide. Crisis presentations to emergency departments (EDs) in the context of suicidal ideation or self-harm are increasing, particularly in males. This cross-sectional, observational study therefore aimed to profile the characteristics of ED presentations for suicidal ideation and s...

This study uses the Delphi expert consensus method to work with lived-experience experts and establish research priorities to advance our understanding of male suicide risk and recovery. Items for the Delphi were generated via findings from two recent quantitative and qualitative systematic reviews on male suicide, a comprehensive gray literature s...

Purpose In Australia and internationally, it is men who predominately die by suicide. Men are less likely than women to seek help for their mental health difficulties and this may contribute to their higher suicide rates. We created a 4-minute music video encouraging Australian men to seek help for mental health difficulties (Boys Do Cry). We aimed...

Shifts in gender roles, identities and relations since the 1980s are continuing to influence masculinities within intimate partner relationships. Forefront in men's contemporary heterosexual relationships have been calls for gender equality and gender equity as a means to promoting the mental health and well-being of partners and their families. Mo...

Men are less likely than women to access or engage with a range of generic health programs across a diversity of settings. Designing health programs that mitigate barriers associated with normative ideals of masculinity has been widely viewed as a key factor in how health systems should respond, but strategies to engage men have often narrowly conc...

Photovoice offers creative participatory action methods for conveying community strengths and challenges with the goal of addressing health inequities. Accelerated by COVID-19 restrictions, photovoice has increasingly become virtual, and this shift has given rise to new considerations including navigating online recruitment and data collection, e-p...

The Psychic Pain Scale (PPS) measures a form of mental pain involving overwhelming negative affect and loss of self-control. Understanding psychic pain among men is needed to advance efforts for preventing male suicide. The present study examined the factor structure and psychosocial correlates of the PPS among 621 online help-seeking men. Confirma...

Background Treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) in men is complicated by the endorsement of traditional masculinity ideologies (TMI) often leading to reluctance toward psychotherapy, therapy interfering processes, or premature termination. In addition, it has been shown that men with MDD have a significantly increased risk of being hypogona...

Objective: To review the literature on the experiences of boys and men exposed to childhood sexual abuse, and to assess the implications of this literature for trials of interventions and tailored services for this population. Method: We conducted a narrative review of papers pertaining to boys and men exposed to childhood sexual abuse. Implication...

Objective: To describe key considerations for working with men experiencing distressed and disrupted intimate partner relationships. Methods: Individual Zoom interviews were conducted with help-seeking men (n = 25) who had experienced an intimate partnership break-up, and health service providers (n = 30) working with men in the relationships sp...

Background: Although studies have reported a significant inverse association between meaning in life and psychological distress, little is known about this association, specifically among men, or its potential underlying mechanisms. Accordingly, this study investigated prospective pathways connecting meaning in life to men's psychological distress...

Anxiety is the most prevalent mental disorder experienced by young men, and when untreated, is predictive of co-morbid mental health challenges and suicide. Despite the rising prevalence, there is a conspicuous absence of qualitative research to distil and theorise young men's anxiety. Twenty-five young Australian men (15-25 years), who had been di...

Men’s intimate partner relationship services have focused on correcting the behaviors of male perpetrators of intimate partner (IPV) and/or domestic violence (DV). There is a need to advance IPV and DV prevention efforts by better equipping men with relationship skills. This study explores service providers’ and stakeholders’ perspectives about the...

Queer men (i.e., men who are not heterosexual; sexual minority men) are disproportionately affected by negative body image-they experience greater body dissatisfaction are more likely to develop eating disorders than heterosexual men. While existing literature has examined individual-level predictors of negative body image for queer men, less is kn...

Suicidal ideation among men during COVID-19: Examining the roles of loneliness, thwarted belongingness, and personality impairment. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. Suicidal ideation (SI) is a known precursor to suicide among men. While loneliness and thwarted belongingness (TB) have been identified as key factors influencing SI, no study has re...

Background Men account for three-quarters of all suicide deaths in many Western nations including Australia. Whilst extensive research has examined risk factors for suicidal ideation and behaviour in men, protective factors remain underexplored, particularly social support, resilience and coping behaviours. Such factors are important to examine par...

Aim: Social support and resilient coping can aid mental health. The aim of this study was to examine age effects of social support on men's resilient coping for psychological distress. Methods: The sample consisted of 434 help-seeking Canadian men who completed standardized measures. Regression analyses tested a moderated moderation model, contr...

Background: Treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) in men is complicated by the endorsement of traditional masculinity ideologies (TMI) often leading to reluctance towards psychotherapy, therapy interfering processes, or premature termination. In addition, it has been shown that men with MDD have a significantly increased risk of being hypogo...

Background: Treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) in men is complicated by the endorsement of traditional masculinity ideologies (TMI) often leading to reluctance towards psychotherapy, therapy interfering processes, or premature termination. In addition, it has been shown that men with MDD have a significantly increased risk of being hypogo...

The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, uncertainties and management inconsistencies have been implicated in men’s rising distress levels, which in turn have somewhat normed the uptake of telemental healthcare services (i.e., phone and/or video-conference-based therapy). Given past evidence of poor engagement with telemental health among men, this mixe...

Regional Australian masculinities are typified by ‘traditional’ values (e.g., stoicism, self-reliance) known to restrict social connectedness. Thus, these masculinities have been implicated in worsening men’s mental health. What remains unclear, however, is how men living in inner-regional communities (i.e., townships on the fringes of major cities...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on men's lives. Investigating specific constructs and pathways related to men's mental health outcomes may help to more fully understand the short and long-term impact of the pandemic and illuminate opportunities to better promote men's mental health. In this study, we assessed the med...

For men, significant risks associated with partner-initiated break-ups include domestic violence, mental health challenges and difficultly with life transition. This narrative analysis study shares three storylines drawn from interviews with 25 men who experienced a partner-initiated break-up. Ill equipped to stay or to initiate leaving narratives...

The therapeutic relationship has emerged as one of the most important components of successful treatment outcomes, regardless of the specific form of therapy. Research has now turned its attention to better understanding how the therapeutic relationship contributes to patient improvement. Extant literature contends that a strong therapeutic relatio...

Men’s emotions in intimate partner relationships have received little research attention. The current interpretive descriptive study included 30 Canadian‐based men to address the research question: What are the connections between masculinities and men’s emotions in and after intimate partner relationships? Three inductively derived themes included...

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a highly heterogeneous diagnosis wherein the nine MDD criterion signs and symptoms reflect 256 unique symptom combinations. Accordingly, MDD comprises a broad set of phenotypes observed across clinical practice, including primary care. With intensifying global efforts to prevent male suicide, attention has rapidly...

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing extensive job loss leading to a loss of social status in many men. Endorsement of traditional masculinity ideology may render some men particularly sensitive to status loss and thereby to an increased risk for suicidality. In this anonymous online survey conducted in German-speaking European countries, 490 men compl...

Around the world, males dominate suicide statistics. Masculinity – socially constructed gender ideals for boys and men – may be a key contributory factor underpinning the heightened risk of suicide in males. Conformity to “dominant” masculine norms like self-reliance is associated with reduced help-seeking in boys and men. If they do seek help, the...

Despite known links between men’s avoidant coping behaviours (e.g., distraction, denial, substance use) and suicide risk, little research has explored the mechanisms underpinning this relationship. This study sought to examine whether male-type depression symptoms (e.g., anger, aggression, emotion suppression), assessed by the Male Depression Risk...

Deleterious effects of separation and divorce on men’s mental health are well-documented; however, little is known about their help-seeking when adjusting to these all-too-common life transitions. Employing interpretive descriptive methods, interviews with 47 men exploring their mental health help-seeking after a relationship break-up were analyzed...

Background: Helplines are an accessible form of support for people struggling with difficulties in their lives and are key services in suicide prevention and intervention. Men’s experiences of telephone helplines are not well understood, despite high male suicide rates. Methods: We conducted an online cross-sectional survey with N = 684 Australian...

Background Although the proportion of men seeking professional mental health care has risen over the past two decades, on average, men continue to attend fewer sessions of psychotherapy and are more likely to drop out of treatment prematurely compared to women. Men account for three-quarters of suicide deaths; furthermore, over half of the males wh...

Objective: The purpose of this review was to synthesise the literature on the topic of masculinity and testicular cancer (TC) and investigate the relative impact of TC on men's view of their masculinity. Methods: Searches were conducted across four databases (MEDline, PsycInfo, CINAHL Plus and Scopus) for articles published before April 2022 tha...

Objective Men’s engagement in mental health treatment significantly lags behind that of women, despite prevalence rates highlighting that poor mental health is a public health issue shared equally between them. As such, examination of complementary and alternative mental health approaches that might support men’s mental health is crucial. The aim o...

The spectrum of adverse mental health trajectories caused by sexual abuse, broadly defined as exposure to rape and unwanted physical sexual contact, is well-known. Few studies have systematically appraised the epidemiology and impact of sexual abuse among boys and men. New meta-analytic insights (k = 44; n = 45 172) reported by Zarchev and colleagu...

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a suite of circumstances that will simultaneously affect mental health and mobilize coping strategies in response. Building on a lack of research specifically exploring men's mental health impacts during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study presents the results of a qualitative survey exploring men's self-reported a...

Background Approximately one fifth of Australian males aged 16+ experience mood, anxiety or substance use disorders in a given year, and suicide by males accounts for three quarters of all suicides annually. However, males with mental health problems are less likely to seek and receive help than their female counterparts. Media campaigns with video...

Aim of the study The Fear of COVID-19 Scale is a widely used measurement tool for related anxieties, however previous studies validating the scale report varying fit indices, often below accepted cut-off points. This suggests re-specification of the scale may be required. The present study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the English...

In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic and claims that traditional masculinity may put some men at increased risk for infection, research reporting men’s health behaviors is critically important. Traditional masculine norms such as self-reliance and toughness are associated with a lower likelihood to vaccinate or follow safety restrictions. Furtherm...

Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental health disorder experienced by men. If left untreated, anxiety is predictive of psychiatric disorders including depression and associated suicide risk. Despite the prevalence and impact of men’s anxiety, it remains largely overlooked in the field of men’s mental health. Globally, men are reported to h...

Background In an age of increasing loneliness and associated poor mental health, research uncovering the extent to which social connection can be achieved digitally is paramount. This is particularly important among men, who experience unique barriers to achieving meaningful social connections due to masculine norms including independence and self-...

Men’s low job satisfaction has been shown to be associated with greater symptoms of psychological distress. Meaning in life may be an important factor in this relationship, but its role as a mediator has not been reported. The present study investigated meaning in life as a mediator in the relationship between job satisfaction and psychological dis...

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly challenged many men’s mental health. Efforts to control the spread of the virus have led to increasing social disconnection, fueling concerns about its long-term effects on men’s mental health, and more specifically their experience of psychological distress. Social disconnection, psychological distress, and...

This study aimed to evaluate the acceptability, feasibility, and potential efficacy of an online, 8-hr mental health practitioner training program, Men in Mind. To this end, 196 Australian-based mental health practitioners (72.1% female; Mage = 44.98 years, SDage = 11.75 years) completed a baseline survey and were provided access to Men in Mind. Th...

Male suicide continues to be a significant issue worldwide for which there are a myriad of social risk factors. Amongst these, distressed and/or disrupted (i.e., separation, divorce) intimate partner relationships are known to heighten men's mental illness and suicide risk. The current qualitative study offers novel insights to the connections betw...

Regionally-based Australian men have a higher risk of suicide than those in urban centers, with similar trends observed internationally. Adopting a place-based approach to understanding men’s suicide and harm prevention provides contextual insights to guide localised opportunities for the development of tailored gender-specific interventions. Men i...

The Human Code is a research project which aims to better understand community attitudes in the Macedon Ranges Shire (the Shire) to outdated masculine stereotypes and their effect on men’s mental health and related behaviours. Orygen undertook the research and it was funded by the North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network, as a project of the...

Background: In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic and claims that traditional masculinity may put some men at increased risk for infection, research reporting men's health behaviors is critically important. Traditional masculine norms such as self-reliance and toughness are associated with a lower likelihood to vaccinate or follow safety restrictio...

Although men have apparently lower rates of depression than women, their high rates of suicide, substance misuse and physical violence point to an undercurrent of distress. GPs can help their male patients with depression by recognising externalising symptoms such as anger, substance misuse and risk-taking, leveraging men's strengths, broadening th...

Objective: Emerging research highlights that therapists experience difficulty engaging and retaining male clients in talk therapy. Understanding therapists' challenges when working with men can inform gender-specific training efforts. Methods: Open-ended qualitative survey data were collected from a sample of 421 Australian-based therapists. Par...

While research has explored the intersection between masculinities and men’s experiences of suicidality, comparatively little attention has been paid to the stories surrounding suicidal men’s decision to seek help. The ways in which men experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors embody masculinities alongside their enlistment of mental health ser...

The psychological mechanisms connecting shame and anger among men remain underexplored. This study aimed to understand the potential roles of psychological distress and alexithymia in this pathway, both in the form of difficulty identifying and describing one’s feelings. Self-report measures were completed by 1,000 men (age mean = 49.6 years; range...

Background Approximately one fifth of Australian males aged 16 + experience mood, anxiety or substance use disorders in a given year, and suicide by males accounts for three quarters of all suicides annually. However, males with mental health problems are less likely to seek and receive help than their female counterparts. Media campaigns with vide...

Aim: Anxiety disorders are amongst the most commonly diagnosed mental illnesses amongst men; however male-specific anxiety research is lacking. This review explores men's anxiety symptoms and disorders including help-seeking, coping and the role of masculinity. Method: Four electronic database searches identified 8,333 citations, with 25 studies...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is causing extensive job loss leading to a loss of social status in many men. Endorsement of traditional masculinity ideology may render some men particularly sensitive to status loss and thereby to an increased risk for suicidality. Methods: In this anonymous online survey conducted in German-speaking European cou...

Self-reliance features as one of the notable male norms espoused by traditional masculine socialization. Strict adherence to a self-reliant attitude has been found to confer risk for depression and suicidality among men. Yet, little research has investigated the factors that may contribute to self-reliance having a negative impact for men. Using da...

Men have been underrepresented in research investigating the pathway from social anxiety through loneliness to suicidality. The present study examined loneliness as a mediator between social anxiety and suicidality among men, along with exposure to childhood trauma as a moderator of this pathway. A nationally representative sample of 530 Canadian m...

We examined whether men’s distress disclosure would be indirectly associated with psychological distress through feeling understood by others and loneliness as serial or parallel mediators. We conducted path analyses ( N = 1827 adult men; mean 37.53 years, SD = 14.14) to test the mediators while controlling for race/ethnicity. Post-hoc multi-group...

Recognition of the importance of mental health practitioners’ enactment of ‘gender competency’ when working with men is growing. This article describes the development and theoretical background to a novel online training program for practitioners, called Men in Mind. The training focuses on men’s gender socialization, engaging male clients in ther...

Over the last half-century, the women's health movement has been a powerful driver in health policy linking gender norms to sex differences in health and wellbeing. Even though gender norms also affect males, there has been little emphasis on gender in health policies for males, especially in relation to the mental health of boys and young men. Gen...

Issue addressed Many men are challenged by barriers to mental health help-seeking and engagement. For men who do access care, their pathways to engaging services can offer important insights to what might constitute gender-specific care. Methods Data were drawn from an online cross-sectional survey of N=2009 Australian men (aged 16-85; M=43.5) ref...

Little empirical data exists regarding men’s preferences for therapist gender, including what predicts these preferences, and the impact they may have on satisfaction with care. To address this, data were drawn from an online survey of Australian men (n = 2002; aged 16–85; M = 43.8 years) reflecting on their preferences for and experiences of menta...

The prevalence of male-type or externalising depression symptoms (e.g., anger, risk-taking, emotion suppression) were examined with cross-sectional online convenience sample of 1,277 help-seeking young men (M=23.64, SD=3.61 years). Almost a quarter (21.9%) of the sample reported childhood sexual abuse (CSA) exposure, and most (68.8%,) endorsed past...

Background: Loneliness, the painful affective state that reflects perceived deficits in social relationships, is a significant health issue requiring further understanding. Individual differences in awareness and disclosure of emotional concerns may contribute to loneliness, and may do so diversely according to gender and age. The present study exa...

Anger has been a largely neglected emotion in prostate cancer research and intervention. This paper highlights the role of anger in the anxiety depression pathway among men with prostate cancer, and whether its impact is dependent on loneliness. Data are presented from a sample of men with prostate cancer (N = 105, M = 69.12 years, prostatectomy =...

While increasing numbers of Australian men are accessing mental health services, the sustainability of their therapy engagement varies significantly, with many men being lost to follow-up. The current study investigated dropout rates in a large community-based male sample to highlight the reasons for, and potential predictors of, men dropping out o...

Issue addressed: Health outcomes linked to men's relationships have the potential to both promote and risk the well-being of males and their families. The current scoping review provides a synthesis of men's relationship programs (excluding criminal court mandated services) in Australia, Canada and the UK to distil predominant program designs, acc...

Background: Screening for depressive disorders in men may be complicated by traditional male role norms. The Male Depression Risk Scale (MDRS) was developed to aid screening for depression in men adhering to traditional male role norms and to facilitate identification of depression in men in general and to promote treatment uptake. Aims: Validation...

Male suicide rates are high and rising, and important insights can be gleaned from understanding the experiences of men who have attempted suicide. Drawing from a grounded theory photovoice study of diverse Canadian men, three intertwined thematic processes were derived: (a) preceding death struggles, (b) life-ending attempts and saving graces, and...

Mentalizing, or reflective functioning, refers to the capacity to reflect on one's own and others' mental states in terms of desires, intentions, and feelings. Reflective functioning in men's mental health is poorly understood, particularly in reference to men's resilience and motivation for personal growth. Using a cross‐sectional design, the pres...

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the lives of men. In addition to physical health, there is increasing recognition of the need to understand the psychosocial impacts of COVID-19. The present study investigated psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on a help-seeking community sample of Canadian men, focusing on div...

Objective When a client feels a threat to their freedom or autonomy as a result of external feedback, they can act out and respond in maladaptive ways. This state – referred to as reactance – has potential ramifications on interpersonal functioning. However, the underlying factors exacerbating this response including self‐esteem and gender are yet...