Asking men about domestic violence and abuse in a family medicine context: Help seeking and views on the general practitioner role K. Morgan a, ⁎, E. Williamson a , M. Hester a , S. Jones a,1 , G. Feder b a School for Policy Studies, Centre for Gender and Violence Research, University of Bristol, 8 Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1TZ, UK b School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, 39 Whatley Road, Bristol BS8 2PS, UK abstract article info Article history: Received 15 September 2014 Accepted 27 September 2014 Available online 5 October 2014 Keywords: Male patients Domestic violence and abuse Help-seeking Health-care practitioners General practice Reflecting the higher prevalence of domestic violence and abuse experienced by women, and the recognised health impacts of such abuse, studies have focused on the responses of health-care practitioners to women in het- erosexual relationships. Comparatively few studies have looked at the health impacts or help-seeking of men who may be perpetrators and/or victims of abuse within intimate relationships. In this paper we report on help seeking and the health professional's role based on a survey of 1368 men attending 16 general practices in the southwest of England and 31 interviews with a sample of survey respondents. The survey had a number of questions on experience or perpetration of behaviours which could be considered abusive, on whether respon- dents had ever been asked about such behaviours by health-care professionals, and on whether they had ever sought formal or informal help for such behaviours. Men were most likely to seek informal support from friends or family. The next most likely source of support was the family doctor. This paper suggests that health-care prac- titioners in general, and family doctors in particular, have a role in asking male patients about the experience or perpetration of domestic abuse and need training to do so effectively and safely. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637 2. Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638 2.1. Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638 2.2. Survey questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638 2.3. Interview questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638 2.4. Coding and analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639 3. Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639 3.1. Health-care practitioners asking men about potentially abusive behaviours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639 3.1.1. Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639 3.1.2. Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639 3.2. Help-seeking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639 3.2.1. Survey responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639 3.2.2. Interviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 640 4. Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641 5. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641 Declarations/Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642 1. Introduction Amongst the wider literature, there is uncertainty about how no- tions of masculinity influence the help seeking behaviour of men and Aggression and Violent Behavior 19 (2014) 637–642 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 117 9546606. E-mail address: Karen.morgan@bristol.ac.uk (K. Morgan). 1 Present Address: CAADA, 3rd Floor, Maxet House, 28 Baldwin Street, Bristol BS1 1NG, UK. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2014.09.008 1359-1789/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Aggression and Violent Behavior