This study considers when, whether, and how spouses encourage professional mental health care by analyzing qualitative data from 90 in-depth interviews with gay, lesbian, and heterosexual spouses. Findings show that a majority of spouses are engaged in promoting each other’s mental health care but that the strategies used to promote care vary by gender and the gender composition of the couple. The majority of gay men and lesbian women promote care by framing mental health problems as largely biochemical, fixable only with professional care or medicine, and work to destigmatize this care. Lesbian women uniquely emphasize the influence of a spouse’s symptoms on marital quality as a reason to pursue care. Some heterosexual women and men also report seeing their spouse’s mental health care as something for them to deal with on their own and thus do not encourage care. This study has important implications for researchers looking to understand why some individuals seek mental health care and others do not and provides policymakers insight into mental health interventions via spouses.

中文翻译：

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“去看看某人”：配偶如何促进精神保健

这项研究通过分析90次与男同性恋，女同性恋者和异性恋伴侣的深度访谈中的定性数据，来考虑配偶何时，是否以及如何鼓励专业的心理保健。调查结果表明，大多数配偶都在促进彼此的精神保健，但用于促进保健的策略因性别和夫妻的性别组成而异。大多数男同性恋和女同性恋者通过将心理健康问题归结为主要是生化因素，只能通过专业护理或医学来解决，从而促进了护理，并致力于减轻这种护理的耻辱感。女同性恋者特别强调配偶症状对婚姻质量的影响，以此作为寻求护理的理由。一些异性恋妇女和男人还报告说，将配偶的精神保健视为自己可以应对的事情，因此不鼓励她们接受保健。这项研究对希望了解为什么有些人寻求精神保健而另一些人不寻求精神保健的研究人员具有重要意义，并为决策者提供了通过配偶对精神保健干预措施的见识。