A new study shows that men who follow a set of norms strongly associated with traditional masculinity are twice as likely to die by suicide as men who did not, according to MedPage Today.
The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, involved 20,745 adolescents recruited in 1995 as part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Researchers matched the adolescents with death records in 2014.
Researchers identified 16 behaviors in which men and women's attitudes differ significantly, such as willingness to cry and getting into fights. Men with a 73 percent probability of aligning with the "male" view of these behaviors were categorized as the "high traditional masculinity" group.
Researchers found that those in the "high traditional masculinity" group were more than twice as likely to die by suicide as those not in the group. Men in the "high traditional masculinity" group were also 1.45 times less likely to report suicidal thoughts.