Kylie King is a Senior Research Fellow at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health at Monash University. She has expertise in male suicide prevention research and mental health program evaluation. She is interested in the capacity for public health interventions to have positive impacts on men’s mental health across the life span.

The project is being undertaken in collaboration with researchers at the University of Melbourne and Orygen, and with Tomorrow Man.

This project will evaluate Tomorrow Man’s ‘Breaking the Man Code’ workshops. These workshops facilitate honest and authentic conversations with Year 11 and 12 male students, in order to define a masculinity that ‘generates purpose, pride, and health for the men of today and tomorrow’. The project aims to determine the impacts of the workshops on male students.

Specifically, we seek to determining whether the workshops have positive impact on participants likelihood of seeking help for personal and emotional problems, likelihood of recommending that others seek help, perceived social support, conformity to harmful masculine norms, and depression. In partnership with Tomorrow Man, we will undertake a cluster randomised controlled trial wherein students will be assessed on a range of measures prior to the workshop and after the workshop. These students will then be compared to other students who are waiting to receive the workshop. Any differences noted between the two groups can then be attributed to the workshop.

Co-Investigators: Dr Marisa Schlichthorst, Dr Patty Chondros, Dr Simon Rice & Professor Jane Pirkis.