Masculinity and help-seeking in male collegiate athletes: The role of self-compassion

Objective: To examine the direct and indirect relationships of masculinity and self-compassion on male collegiate athletes' help-seeking stigma, attitudes, and intentions. Participants: 426 male collegiate athletes (Mage = 20.63 years; 72.5% White). Methods: Participants completed measures assessing their conformity to masculine norms, self-compassion, mental health self-stigma, and their attitudes and intentions to seek help for a mental health concern. Results: Using the PROCESS macro, we found that the variables explained 52% of the variance in intentions to seek help when using masculine norms total score and 55% of the variance using the emotional control and self-reliance subscales; more conformity with masculine norms was directly related to more self-stigma and more negative attitudes toward seeking help, self-compassion was directly related to less self-stigma. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that increasing self-compassion and reducing stigma may be beneficial in increasing male athletes' willingness to seek help for a mental health concern.