Orygen, the National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Centre for Youth Mental Health, the University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
PLoS One. 2019 May 20;14(5):e0216955. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216955. eCollection 2019.
Boys and young men have unique health-related needs that may be poorly met by existing programs and initiatives. The mismatch between the needs of boys and young men and current service offerings-driven largely by social determinants of health such as masculinity-may stymie health status. This is evidenced through high rates of self-stigma, accidental death or suicide, and low rates of help seeking and health literacy among populations of boys and young men. With growing interest in improving wellbeing and educational outcomes for all young people (including boys and young men), this systematic review aimed to evaluate community and school-based programs with specific focus on program features and outcomes directly relevant to young males aged 12-25 years. Five data-bases were searched; Medline, EMBASE, PsycInfo, ERIC, and ERAD. Articles were included if they evaluated an intervention or program with a general or at-risk sample of young men, and measured a psychological, psychosocial, masculinity, or educational outcome. The majority of the 40 included studies had high quality reporting (62.5%). Synthesised data included theoretical frameworks, intervention characteristics, outcomes, and key results. Of the included studies, 14 were male-focussed programs, with masculinity approaches directed towards program aims and content information. The emergent trend indicated that male-targeted interventions may be more beneficial for young men than gender-neutral programs, however, none of these studies incorporated masculine-specific theory as an overarching framework. Furthermore, only three studies measured masculine-specific variables. Studies were limited by a lack of replication and program refinement approaches. It is concluded that there is significant scope for further development of community and school-based health promotion programs that target young men through incorporation of frameworks that consider the impact of gendered social and environmental determinants of health. Evaluation of these programs will provide researchers and practitioners with the capacity for translating beneficial outcomes into best-practice policy.
男孩和青年男性有着独特的健康相关需求,而现有项目和举措可能无法充分满足这些需求。男孩和青年男性的需求与当前服务提供之间的不匹配,主要是由健康的社会决定因素(如男性气质)驱动的,这可能会影响健康状况。这一点可以从以下事实中得到证明:男孩和青年男性群体中的自我污名化、意外死亡或自杀率较高,而寻求帮助和健康素养的比例较低。随着人们越来越关注改善所有年轻人(包括男孩和青年男性)的幸福感和教育成果,本系统评价旨在评估社区和学校为基础的项目,特别关注与 12-25 岁年轻男性直接相关的项目特征和结果。五个数据库进行了搜索;Medline、EMBASE、PsycInfo、ERIC 和 ERAD。如果文章评估了一项干预或方案,其中包含一般或有风险的青年男性样本,并测量了心理、心理社会、男性气质或教育结果,则将其纳入研究。40 项纳入研究中有 62.5%的研究报告质量较高。综合数据包括理论框架、干预特征、结果和关键结果。在纳入的研究中,有 14 项是针对男性的项目,其男性气质方法针对项目目标和内容信息。出现的趋势表明,针对男性的干预措施可能对年轻男性更有益,但是,这些研究中没有一项将男性特有的理论作为一个总体框架纳入其中。此外,只有三项研究测量了男性特有的变量。研究受到缺乏复制和方案改进方法的限制。结论是,通过纳入考虑性别社会和环境决定因素对健康影响的框架,进一步开发针对年轻男性的社区和学校为基础的健康促进项目具有重要意义。对这些项目的评估将为研究人员和实践者提供将有益结果转化为最佳实践政策的能力。