Introduction: Along with other suicide risk factors, masculinity is analysed as an important subject for suicide behaviour in men. In current research, masculinity is analysed as Gender Role Conflict (GRC), which refers to a situation where inflexible or excessively strict societal expectations of the traditional male gender roles clash with incompatible situational requirements, resulting in adverse outcomes for men and those around them. One of the GRC patterns is a tendency to focus on personal achievement through competitive efforts, which results in dysfunctional personal characteristics. The purpose of current research is to analyse the relationship between GRC pattern success, power and competition and suicidality with mediating variables from the Cry of Pain theory for suicide behaviour: social status, defeat and entrapment.
Methods: Data was collected via the survey. The sample consists of 562 Lithuanian men from various age groups and regions. The age of research participants varied from 18 to 92 years (M=42.99, SD=17.18). 40.9% of men were from cities, 28.1% from towns and 30.8% from rural locations. We used GRCS-FS scale (Wester et al., 2012) to measure GRC pattern success, power, and competition. Suicide risk was estimated with SBQ-R scale (Osman et al., 2001). Social status was estimated with Social Comparison Scale (Allan & Gilbert, 1995), and defeat and entrapment were estimated with SDES scale (Griffiths et al., 2015).
Results: Mediation analysis showed mixed results. The tendency to strive for success, power and competition is associated with stronger feelings of defeat and entrapment, which is linked to a higher risk of suicide. However, the tendency to strive for success, power and competition is also associated with higher social status, which predicts a weaker feeling of defeat and entrapment, which is associated with lower suicide risk.
Conclusion: It would be misleading to suggest that men should be less competitive and less driven to achieve and that their mental health would improve. However, in some situations, it may be that the orientation towards achievement is so strong that it reinforces a sense of defeat in certain circumstances, and if no alternatives are seen, this may lead to suicidal ideation. The traditional male gender role has a contradicting association with suicide risk: it can be both a risk and a protective factor.