Championing Men’s Health: An Interview with Dr. Thomas McMahon
This month, we are honored to spotlight Dr. Thomas McMahon, the recent recipient of the Outstanding Consulting Editor Award from our flagship journal, Psychology of Men & Masculinities (PMM). Dr. McMahon, a Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Psychiatry and Child Study at the Yale University School of Medicine, has significantly advanced our understanding of developmental psychopathology and addiction science. His groundbreaking research on the impact of drug addiction on family dynamics and the unique parenting challenges faced by men has shaped innovative and effective treatment approaches.
We recently sat down with Dr. McMahon to discuss key moments from his career, his vision for future research on men and masculinities, and his commitment to improving methodological rigor in academic publishing. Join us as we delve into Dr. McMahon’s influential contributions, career journey, and advice for aspiring PMM authors.
Can you tell me about an early or recent professional experience of yours that has helped to shape your path within the field of psychology?
Undoubtedly, one of the most influential experiences in the direction of my career occurred soon after I completed my graduate training while working on a large, comparative study of risk and resilience in the lives of children living with a mother misusing opioids or cocaine. When reflecting on the work we were doing, I realized that, despite our collection of detailed information from mothers and children, we knew virtually nothing about the fathers of the children we were following in this longitudinal study. When I matter-of-factly pointed that out in a divisional research meeting, I was very surprised when a colleague immediately commented that the children were ‘probably better off without the fathers around.’ Knowing from personal and professional experience that the issue was much more complicated than that, the incident motivated me to pursue a literature review on the parenting of men struggling with alcohol and drug addiction.
As people might expect, I found that, although the presence of a paternal alcohol use disorder was readily acknowledged as a risk for the misuse of alcohol by the next generation, particularly for boys, very little was known about the parenting of men with alcohol or drug addiction. After writing an editorial on the gendered nature of parenting in the world of substance use treatment and research, I began a series of research projects designed to increase understanding of fathering occurring in the context of drug addiction to inform the development of gender-sensitive parent interventions for men in drug use treatment.
It is this early career interest in drug addiction and fathering that led me to the group of clinicians and researchers forming a new APA division devoted to the psychological study of men and masculinities.
How did you find yourself to be interested in developmental psychopathology, addiction science, and community mental health? Are there specific hopes that you have about how your research might impact our field’s understanding of men and our approaches to the treatment of men?
Before beginning graduate school, I worked as a psychiatric technician at a small community hospital where the director of psychiatric services emphasized a multisystemic perspective on the assessment and treatment of individuals experiencing psychiatric difficulty. After finishing graduate school, I was again exposed to many of the same ideas better organized as the principles of developmental psychopathology. Because they allow for the integration of diverse perspectives on psychopathology, they quickly became the conceptual framework for the clinical work, training, and research I have pursued throughout my career.
My greatest hope, which I recently outlined in a paper submitted to the journal, is that researchers interested in the psychology of men and masculinities will adopt a developmental perspective and begin clarifying what influences the development of adaptive and maladaptive masculine gender identities in men across the lifespan. With a better understanding of what happens developmentally, I hope that we will be able to develop more effective preventive and clinical interventions that better address the psychological, behavioral, interpersonal, and social problems that disproportionately affect men.
What do you find most meaning about your work as a consulting editor? Why did you choose to do it?
It was an honor to have my work as a consulting editor acknowledged by the editorial leadership of the journal. The most meaningful dimension of my work as a member of the editorial board has been the opportunity to contribute directly to the quality of the research being published on the psychology of men and masculinities. Over the years, I have chosen to continue reviewing papers primarily because of my interest in helping to ensure that, regardless of the specific content, the research published in the journal is as methodologically sound as possible.
As a consulting editor for PMM, What do you look for in an ideal manuscript?
More than anything else, I believe that any manuscript accepted for publication in the journal needs to be as methodologically rigorous as possible with thoughtful acknowledgment of the limitations of the research methods. That may seem like a truism, but it is not always true for some manuscripts when they are first submitted to the journal.
What advice would you give to an aspiring PMM author?
Given my previous comment, it is probably no surprise that my free advice to any author preparing a paper for submission to the journal is to use the methodologic literature and relevant publication guidelines, like the JARS guidelines and the guidelines compiled by the EQUATOR Network, to ensure that you are presenting the best version of your research possible.
Thomas J. McMahon, PhD
Professor Emeritus
Yale University School of Medicine
Departments of Psychiatry and Child Study
Connecticut Mental Health Center
West Haven Mental Health Clinic
270 Center Street
West Haven, CT 06516
