Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Email: sarah. Fifteen life history interviews were undertaken with men in the community.
While some men differentiated between their social connections with men and women, others experienced difficulties in mobilizing support from existing connections.
Some men maintained a desire to be independent, rejecting the need for social support, whereas others established support networks from which they could actively seek support. Keywords: Mental health, mental well-being, masculinity, social support, social connectedness, gender relations. The importance of social connections and support networks for mental health and well-being is well-documented. While definitions of social support abound in the mental health literature e.
Such studies, however, paint a markedly homogenous view of men, and lead to the assumption that all men are less able, and less interested, than women in building emotional and supportive relationships with others. For example, Bryant-Bedell and Waite in their qualitative study of middle-aged men with depression reported that men described feelings of loneliness, sadness, and distress and actively sought emotional support, wanting to share these feelings with loved ones.
Many of these men did not know how to talk about these feelings or felt embarrassed to do so. Similarly, Liang and George highlighted how some men with depression wanted to talk to family or friends about their personal difficulties but had few or no people in their social networks with whom they trusted to share their feelings.
