“The average Scottish man has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, lying there with a portion of chips”: prospects for change in Scottish men’s constructions of masculinity and their health-related beliefs and behaviours

Men's apparent resistance to recommended health practices and their engagement with ‘high-risk’ behaviours has been associated with an increased risk of morbidity or mortality. Recent work has highlighted the need to think critically about the health-promoting behaviours that men appear reluctant to engage in, as well as examining those they embrace, and explore the gendered meanings that men attribute to their beliefs and behaviours. This article presents men's discussions of the ‘practices of masculinity’ and examines their relation to, and implications for, men's health-related behaviours as articulated in 15 focus group discussions (59 participants in total).