Exploring working class men’s experiences of their social context and its impact on mental health and help seeking behaviour in the South Wales Valleys

McGinty, Tonia

Abstract

Past intersectional research has suggested that men living in socially deprived areas are 51% more likely to experience major depressive disorder. Furthermore, men have increased rates of mental distress and psychopathology in comparison to individuals from higher socioeconomic status’s (Remes, Lafortune and Wainright et al. 2019; Johnson, Cohen and Dohwrenwend, 1999), and for middle aged men, there is an increased risk of suicide (Simms, Scowcroft and Mette et al. 2019). Whilst links between areas of social deprivation and mental health are widely acknowledged within the literature, the mechanisms that underpin these statistics are less understood (Wickham, Shryane and Lyons et al. 2014).

To address this identified gap in the literature, this study explored individual mental health experiences and perceived barriers to engaging with services for working class men in the South Wales Valleys. Six men, ages from 25 - 35 took part in semi-structured interviews, five of which occurred face to face, and one via Microsoft teams. All the participants identified as ‘white’, ‘heterosexual’ and as being ‘lower’ or ‘poor’ class when asked to identify their socio-economic positioning.

The qualitative study adopted a critical realist and phenomenological approach as the epistemological position, and interpretative phenomenology analysis was employed to explore mental health experiences and perceived barriers to support seeking. Identifying the difficulties in recruiting from a participant population that do not engage well with support services, an intimate partial insider perspective was adopted in which the researcher utilised already established relationships as the basis for investigative research (Ryan, Hoffman and Aaron, 2011).

Twelve themes were developed from the data, eight of which were constructed as subthemes, and four were developed into superordinate themes: Theme 1 “It’s hard to live around here, I see the Valleys as fight or flight”, Theme 2 Questioning the masculinity script “We’re not fucking cavemen anymore”, Theme 3 “Self-medicating in the Valleys” and Theme 4 Us and them. Each superordinate theme contained two sub themes.

The results offer a developed insight into how social, political, and ideological powers and oppressions operate, and how they impact the mental health experiences of six working class men in the South Wales Valleys. Findings indicate normalisation of mental health distress, economic hardship, and poor mental health literacy within the Valleys. Although economic issues such as poor opportunities were identified to impact wellbeing, predominantly individualistic views of mental health difficulties were identified. This was particularly problematic for the participants as it induced feelings of personal responsibility and shame. From an intersectional lens hegemonic masculine ideologies in the socio-political context of the participants experience were identified to create intense intra and interpersonal difficulties for the participants. Professional support for mental health difficulties was conceptualised as an unattractive option for participants until reaching a point of crisis. Distrust and relational difficulties with mental health professionals were identified as emerging from processes of ‘othering’ that has its roots in unarticulated social power inequalities within the participants relationships with professionals.

This research encourages professionals to consider how individual therapy can be at best be limited and at worst harmful if it doesn’t consider the wider challenges to an individual’s experience (Bostock, 2017), and encourages psychologists to view individual distress in its social context. It also highlights the need to raise class-consciousness within therapeutic training programs and within individual practice to encourage therapists to take a critical stance on the prevailing individualistic discourses of mental health. By acknowledging the client's socio-political context, and the social power dynamics in professional relationships therapist can avoid replicating oppressive experiences.

Citation

McGinty, T. Exploring working class men’s experiences of their social context and its impact on mental health and help seeking behaviour in the South Wales Valleys. (Thesis). University of the West of England. Retrieved from https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10141665

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Nov 15, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 23, 2023
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10141665
• Award Date: Feb 23, 2023