Adam White

Bio: Adam White is an academic researcher from Oxford Brookes University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Concussion & Football. The author has an hindex of 10, co-authored 35 publications receiving 273 citations. Previous affiliations of Adam White include Universities UK & University of Bedfordshire.

The Bromance: Undergraduate Male Friendships and the Expansion of Contemporary Homosocial Boundaries

Abstract: The present study provides the first known qualitative examination of heterosexual undergraduate men’s conceptualization and experiences of the bromance, outside research on cinematic representations. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 30 undergraduate men enrolled in one of four undergraduate sport-degree programs at one university in the United Kingdom, we find these heterosexual men to be less reliant on traditional homosocial boundaries, which have previously limited male same-sex friendships. Contrary to the repressive homosociality of the 1980s and 1990s, these men embrace a significantly more inclusive, tactile, and emotionally diverse approach to their homosocial relationships. All participants provided comparable definitions of what a bromance is and how it operates, all had at least one bromantic friend, and all suggested that bromances had more to offer than a standard friendship. Participants described a bromance as being more emotionally intimate, physically demonstrative, and based upon unrivalled trust and cohesion compared to their other friendships. Participants used their experiences with romances and familial relations as a reference point for considering the conditions of a bromance. Results support the view that declining homophobia and its internalization has had significantly positive implications for male expression and intimacy. Conclusions are made about the bromance’s potential to improve men’s mental health and social well-being because participants indicate these relationships provide a space for emotional disclosure and the discussion of potentially traumatic and sensitive issues.

Privileging the Bromance: A Critical Appraisal of Romantic and Bromantic Relationships:

Abstract: In this research, utilizing data from thirty semistructured interviews, we examine how heterosexual undergraduate men compare their experiences of bromances to that of their romantic relationships (romances). We find that the increasingly intimate, emotive, and trusting nature of bromances offers young men a new social space for emotional disclosure, outside of traditional heterosexual relationships. Participants state that the lack of boundaries and judgment in a bromance is expressed as emotionally rivalling the benefits of a heterosexual romance. Our participants mostly determined that a bromance offered them elevated emotional stability, enhanced emotional disclosure, social fulfilment, and better conflict resolution, compared to the emotional lives they shared with girlfriends. Thus, this research provides an empirically grounded conceptual framework for understanding men’s view of close homosocial relationships in comparison to their romantic relationship in the twenty-first century.

Twelve not so angry men: Inclusive masculinities in Australian contact sports:

Abstract: Sport’s utility in the development of a conservative orthodox ideal of masculinity based upon homophobia, aggression and emotional restrictiveness is well evidenced in critical masculinities scholarship. However, contemporary research is reflecting a more nuanced understanding of male behaviour in many Western contexts, with men performing softer and more inclusive versions of masculinities. Through exploring the experiences of twelve Australian contact sport athletes, this research establishes findings to support the growing body of inclusive masculinities research. Results show that these men value a softer representation of masculinity based upon pro-gay sentiments and being emotionally open, while often being critical of aspects of orthodox masculinities which male team sport previously promoted.

Applying the Bradford Hill Criteria for Causation to Repetitive Head Impacts and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

Abstract: Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease associated with a history of repetitive head impacts (RHI). CTE was described in boxers as early as the 1920s and by the 1950s it was widely accepted that hits to the head caused some boxers to become “punch drunk.” However, the recent discovery of CTE in American and Australian-rules football, soccer, rugby, ice hockey, and other sports has resulted in renewed debate on whether the relationship between RHI and CTE is causal. Identifying the strength of the evidential relationship between CTE and RHI has implications for public health and medico-legal issues. From a public health perspective, environmentally caused diseases can be mitigated or prevented. Medico-legally, millions of children are exposed to RHI through sports participation; this demographic is too young to legally consent to any potential long-term risks associated with this exposure. To better understand the strength of evidence underlying the possible causal relationship between RHI and CTE, we examined the medical literature through the Bradford Hill criteria for causation. The Bradford Hill criteria, first proposed in 1965 by Sir Austin Bradford Hill, provide a framework to determine if one can justifiably move from an observed association to a verdict of causation. The Bradford Hill criteria include nine viewpoints by which to evaluate human epidemiologic evidence to determine if causation can be deduced: strength, consistency, specificity, temporality, biological gradient, plausibility, coherence, experiment, and analogy. We explored the question of causation by evaluating studies on CTE as it relates to RHI exposure. Through this lens, we found convincing evidence of a causal relationship between RHI and CTE, as well as an absence of evidence-based alternative explanations. By organizing the CTE literature through this framework, we hope to advance the global conversation on CTE mitigation efforts.

Teachers' stories: physical education teachers' constructions and experiences of masculinity within secondary school physical education

Abstract: Physical education (PE) and sport have traditionally been identified by scholars as a key mechanism for the production and reproduction of a culturally esteemed ideal of masculinity, premised upon being stoic, strong, competitive, sexist and homophobic. Yet, more recent research reflects a change in valued masculinity as a response to declining cultural homohysteria. As such, this preliminary study looks to establish how PE teachers understand and construct masculinities within the educational environment. Through in-depth interviews, we find participants recognised many elements of softer masculinities, described in inclusive masculinities literature, as being performed by contemporary teenagers. This includes being emotionally open, embracing a more effeminate taste in dress and being increasingly physically tactile. However, we also found that the PE teachers have a cohort variance in their masculine values, with those socialised in sport through the 1980s showing the most orthodox and oppressi...

Hooking Up: Sex, Dating, and Relationships on Campus

Abstract: for higher education in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Sweden, inequality rates for most other countries were largely stable or even increased—a conclusion that is consistent with the maximally maintained inequality (MMI) thesis. The direct and indirect effects of private funding tend to cancel each other out. They therefore conclude that there is probably more inclusion and less diversion under school expansion. The edited volume offers a good representation of the fourth generation of comparative stratification research that seeks to elucidate the extent to which organizational variation across countries affects intergenerational mobility and educational attainment. The detailed information about inequality of higher education in individual countries would be invaluable to comparative researchers with similar interests. However, without taking a truly comparative design, some of the findings are suggestive at best. Furthermore, without controlling for the importance of public examination results, high-school GPA, and/or class ranks, the stated effects of social origin may have been exaggerated. In fact, the inclusion of qualifying examination results and/or high school GPA in Australia, Switzerland, and the United States dramatically reduces the direct effects of social origin to non-significance. The lack of school career data in many countries may also limit our understanding of the dynamics of higher education and underestimate the relative success of certain non-traditional routes. One key feature of advanced industrial economies is the prolonged and protracted paths in educational trajectories during emergent adulthood, where the old rigid educational tracks have gradually dissolved and movements between school and work are becoming more common. It is unclear how variation of such flexibility across countries would affect educational inequality. Nonetheless, it is hopeful that building on current findings, future works that explore these issues would certainly enhance our understanding of the dynamic role of the family and how institutional arrangements (isomorphism and differentiation) condition inequality outcomes. INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS, FAMILY, AND LIFE COURSE

Inclusive Masculinity Theory: overview, reflection and refinement

Abstract: In 2010, this journal published an early exposition of inclusive masculinity theory. Since then, the theory has been widely adopted within both the sport and masculinities literature. Furthermore, a large number of other scholars not using the theory have also documented and labelled new masculinity types. There has also been refinement of Inclusive Masculinity Theory, alongside theoretical critiques. In this article, we provide an overview of the genesis of the theory and its refinement, before considering and responding to published and unpublished critiques of the theory. We then suggest future directions for research.

The Forty-Nine Percent Majority: The Male Sex Role

Abstract: David and Brannon’s Forty-Nine Percent Majority has several features that make it unique. The reader is organized around an original conceptualization of the male role as comprised of four distinct components or dimensions: (1) No ‘sissy stuff‘: the stigma of anything vaguely feminine; (2 ) The big wheel: success, status, and the need to be looked up to; (3) The sturdy oak: a manly air of toughness, confidence, and self-reliance;’ and (4) Give ’em hell: the aura of aggression, violence, and daring. Each dimension i s explored at length in separate sections of the reader, drawing articles irom the new literature specifically concerning male roles, as well as excerpts from more traditional professional and popular sources concerning, for example, social mobility, organizational competition, and gang life. This latter material is important with regard to the observation that most traditional social-scientific research i s really about male experience although it is presented in the guise of human experience. While one clear implication of this observation is the need for new kinds of research on women, another less obvious implication is that traditional scientific literature contains a vast store of material on the male role waiting to be mined by those working to develop a radical analysis of male experience. David and Brannon are among the first to do this in a systematic way. Further, David and Brannon’s four-part conceptualization is in itself a major contribution to the analysis of the male role. In a stimulating and lengthy introductory essay, they suggest that it i s necessary for males to rank high on some, but not necessarily all, of the four dimensions in order to be accepted as masculine. These four components, alone and in various combinations, constitute a set of alternatives for males in their development. David and Brannon briefly sketch a beginning analysis of how male roledemands shift over the life cycle: the major values in childhood are the avoidance of femininity (factor I) and size, strength, and toughness (a fusion