COVID-19 and Men's Health: Men's Perspective

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID pandemic has generated a significant shock in our lives recently. It has altered our ways of perceiving time, space, and personal security, and impacted our mental, emotional and physical health.

Male traditional gender roles have been shaken during these times. Different forms of confinement worldwide have upended the model of traditional masculinity and the established public sphere as a primordial space for masculinity. However, with this isolation, men spend significantly longer in the private-domestic arena, increasing their time with families and consequent caring responsibilities. The heightened pressure, along with potential for familiar conflict, likely have a strong influence on men’s outlook and psychological equilibrium.

Likewise, the typical routines that most men develop in their lives, deeply linked with their male identity, have been affected by the governments’ restrictions, constraining their potential to feel themselves as breadwinners, a key characteristic of typical masculinity. At the same time, the return to their jobs implies certain risk, potentially affecting their well-being, especially during the most uncertain moments of the pandemic.

Gender stereotypes may have adversely influenced men’s health in this context. The false perception of invulnerability has led some men to engage in riskier behaviors, such as not using facemasks or insufficient handwashing, resulting in higher incidence of infections and death. Moreover, the psychological and financial stress due to pandemic have increased other risk behaviors, such as alcohol drinking, which then affect physical health.

Accordingly, this Special Issue aims to address the full spectrum of ways this pandemic has affected men’s mental health, including modification of perceptions of masculinity and its consequences on physical health.

We welcome a wide range of contributions from different disciplines and perspectives, such as surveys, qualitative and mixed research, meta-analyses, systematic reviews or other proposals that, grounded scientifically, can contribute to the current debate about traditional male identity in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic and men's health.

Topics of interest (focused on COVID-19 pandemic confinement and post-confinement):

Men and risky behaviours facing the pandemic

Conflict in domestic-familiar spaces

Pressures and uncertainties regarding breadwinner role

Financial insecurities and mental health

Job pressures and fear in pandemic context

Men, care, self-care and health

Different masculinities (hegemonic/traditional, alternative, new masculinities) and health facing pandemic times

Resistances to change in men identity during COVID-19 pandemic

Men coping strategies (psychological, social, behavioural) and health during and after COVID-19 pandemic confinement

Men's perception of equity and health in different contexts (i.e., family, work, community).

Eva Cifre and Joan Sanfélix Albelda

Guest Editors