Abstract This study explored the preliminary evidence for a relationship between constructive and affirming newsprint stories about depression or anxiety in males and use of helpline services by males. With the help of a Consumer Reference Group, we identified ten positive newsprint stories about males and depression or anxiety. We then obtained phone contact data from four national helplines in Australia: Lifeline, MensLine Australia, SANE Australia, and beyondblue. For each contact, we extracted the date, location and gender of the caller. Poisson regression analysis was used to determine the change in contact volume in the two weeks following each story, as compared to the two weeks prior to the story. Contact volume from males increased significantly in the two weeks after four of the ten stories, decreased after one story with no change after five of the stories. The stories that were associated with increased contacts were about men (including publicly revered role models) that male readers could identify with and tended to be stories of hope and recovery. The findings suggest newsprint media can positively influence male help-seeking and point to a need for articles to provide accurate representations of depression and anxiety, whilst maintaining an optimistic focus on recovery.

中文翻译：

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新闻纸媒体在鼓励男性与求助热线联系中的作用的初步证据

摘要这项研究探索了有关男性抑郁或焦虑与男性使用热线服务的建设性和肯定性新闻报道之间的关系的初步证据。在消费者参考小组的帮助下，我们确定了十个有关男性和抑郁或焦虑的正面新闻报道。然后，我们从澳大利亚的四个国家服务热线获得了电话联系数据：生命线，澳大利亚MensLine，澳大利亚SANE和beyondblue。对于每个联系人，我们提取了呼叫者的日期，位置和性别。使用Poisson回归分析来确定每个故事发生后两周与故事发生前两周相比的接触量变化。在十个故事中的四个故事发生后的两周内，男性的接触量显着增加，一个故事后减少，五个故事后没有变化。与人际关系增加相关的故事是关于男性（包括受到公众尊敬的榜样）的，男性读者可以认同并倾向于希望和康复。研究结果表明新闻纸媒体可以对男性的求助产生积极影响，并指出需要一种文章来提供抑郁症和焦虑症的准确表现，同时保持对康复的乐观关注。