Shame and depressive symptoms in men: The moderating role of environmental mastery and purpose in life.

Background: Feelings of shame are linked to increased risk for depression. Little is known about protective factors that may buffer this effect, particularly in men. Using prospective data from a community sample of Australian men, we examine the extent to which shame is associated with depressive symptoms, and the protective role of psychological wellbeing, specifically environmental mastery and purpose in life.

Methods: Participants ( = 448) were from the longitudinal Men and Parenting Pathways (MAPP) Study. Measures were the Event Related Shame and Guilt Scale for shame, the DASS-21 for depressive symptoms and Ryff's Scales of Psychological Well-Being for environmental mastery and purpose in life. Linear regressions were used to test associations between shame and depressive symptoms concurrently and 1-year later, and the moderating effects of mastery and purpose in life.

Results: Shame was strongly associated with concurrent depressive symptoms (β = .76,  < .001; β = .63,  < .001). This effect was weaker in men with high compared to low environmental mastery (β = .46,   .001; β = .55,  < .001) and purpose in life (β = .48,   .001; β = .62,  < .001). Shame also predicted subsequent depressive symptoms after adjustment for prior depressive symptoms (β = .59,  = .001; β = .34,  = .004), although environmental mastery or purpose in life did not moderate these associations.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that promoting a sense of psychological wellbeing in men may confer protective proximal effects in the context of shame, potentially attenuating depression severity. The current study aligns with calls for strength-based approaches to reducing mental health problems in men.