APA Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Boys and Men

Course overview

This course is based upon material published by the American Psychological Association and is available as an open access article. Boys and men are diverse with respect to their race, ethnicity, culture, migration status, age, socioeconomic status, ability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and religious affiliation. Each of these social identities contributes uniquely and in intersecting ways to shape how men experience and perform their masculinities, which in turn contribute to relational, psychological, and behavioral health outcomes in both positive and negative ways. Although boys and men, as a group, tend to hold privilege and power based on gender, they also demonstrate disproportionate rates of receiving harsh discipline, academic challenges, mental health issues, physical health problems, public health concerns, and a wide variety of other quality-of-life issues. Additionally, men do not seek help when they need it, and many report distinctive barriers to receiving gender-sensitive psychological treatment. The development of guidelines for psychological practice with boys and men may help to attend to the barriers that lead to the aforementioned disparities. These guidelines serve to (a) improve service delivery, (b) stimulate public policy initiatives, and (c) provide professional guidance based on advances in the field. This course on practice guidelines for boys and men is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors, who do clinical work. This course is appropriate for beginning, intermediate and advanced level practitioners who wish to develop or increase their knowledge of practice guidelines for boys and men. It may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require clinical continuing education courses for license renewal. Authors: American Psychological Association Learning Objectives: This course will provide the practitioner with detailed information regarding practice guidelines for boys and men. Specifically, a professional will: Identify definitions regarding gender identity, gender bias, and gender role strain Summarize the guidelines presented by the APA for practice with boys and men Explain how the guidelines are applied in psychological practice Citation: American Psychological Association, Boys and Men Guidelines Group. (2018). APA guidelines for psychological practice with boys and men. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/about/policy/psychological-practice-boys-men-guidelines.pdf