Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (19)
Similar to NEW Presentation for conference
Similar to NEW Presentation for conference (20)
NEW Presentation for conference
- 1. Robin Kaye
- 2. Theories: Masculinities Archaic Gender Role Theories being replaced. Masculinities: A hierarchy of ways to be a man (Ridge, Emslie and White, 2010) Hegemonic masculinity: ‘The current and most honoured way of being a man’ (Connell and Messerschidt, 2005: 837)
- 3. [Men’s] Mental Health Approximately 1 in every 4 people have a mental illness (Centre for Mental Health, 2010). Depression and affective disorders are strongly linked to suicidal ideation (Mann, Apter, Bertolote, Beautraise, Currier, Haas et al, 2005). Men are diagnosed with depression significantly less than their female counterparts (APA: American Psychiatric Association, 2013). On serious mental illness (e.g. Schizophrenia) the level of diagnosis is similar between men and women (APA, 2013).
- 4. Rationale: Men and Suicide Suicide is a growing epidemic Thomas and Gunnell (2010) – Higher rates of mencompleting suicide = ongoing trend. Men are more vulnerable than women to completing suicide. Explanations for this are varied, but include masculinity, economic stress and mental illness/ disability.
- 5. The Research Question How do men construct and negotiate their experiences of distress and suicidal ideation, and how is help seeking formulated in online support communities?
- 6. Objectives: - To examine constructions of face-to-face help-seeking in online support communities. - To examine constructions and negotiations of masculinity in online support communities. - To examine the legitimisation of claims about suicidal ideation. - To examine negotiations of power, or powerlessness, in men experiencing suicidal thoughts.
- 7. Rationale: The Internet • Potential for rich and detailed data • From a range of sources • Reaches a range of people otherwise inaccessible • Reduces the risk of bias. • Capacity to search for specific data.
- 8. My Online Resources Healthunlocked.com An online forum hub which holds the capacity to search specific terns and lists specific posts and communities which are relevant to the search. Suicideforum.com A forum for people considering suicide to talk and get support from peers, a pro-life website.
- 9. Research Methods • Collect [publicly available] data from established online communities • Search communities using key terms (e.g. suicidal, men) • Establish posts are by and about men, prioritizing posts with many replies, and exchanges between men. • Analyze via thematic analysis.
- 10. Ethical Considerations Risks - • Autonomy of the community • Anonymising personal information (where applicable) • Will contain potentially sensitive information Procedures – • Writing to forum/community admin to inform them of the research Advantages – • Information open access • Postee’s use usernames • No direct interaction from researcher
- 11. References: American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. London: American Psychiatric Press. Centre for Mental Health. (2010). The economic and social costs of mental health problems in 2009/2010. London: The Centre for Mental Health. Connell, R. W., & Messerschmidt, J. W. (2005). Hegemonic masculinity rethinking the concept. Gender and Society, 19(6), 829-859 Mann, J. J., Apter, A., Bertolote, J., Beautraise, A., Currier, D., Haas, A., Hegerl, U., Lonnqvist, J., Malone, K., Marusic, A., Mehlum, L., Patton, G., Phillips, M., Rutz, W., Rihmer, Z., Schmidtke, A., Shaffer, D., Silverman, M., Takahashi, Y., Varnic, A., Wasserman, D., Wip, P., & Hendin, H. (2005). Suicide prevention strategies: A systematic review. Journal of the American Medical Association, 294(16), 2064-74.
- 12. Ridge, D., Emslie, C., & White, A. (2010). Understanding how men experience, express and cope with mental distress: where next? Sociology of Health and Illness, 33(1), 145-15 Samaritans. (2016). Samaritans Suicide Statistics Report 2016. Including data from 2012-2014. Report. Retrieved from: www.samaritans.org Thomas, K., & Gunnell, D. (2010). Suicide in England and Wales 1861- 2007: a time-trends analysis. International Journal of Epidemiology, 39(1), 1464-1475. DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyq094.
Editor's Notes
- In this presentation I’m not going to make you laugh, I’m not even going to try. Firstly, because I know that I actually can’t. . More importantly however, I don’t want to distract from the seriousness of this topic. I can’t stress enough how important it is. As you’ll see, I intend to talk to you about men, suicide and the internet.
- As researchers seeking to understand men’s suicide we must first seek to understand the relationship between gender and health. For many years theories have sought to define this, and with previously popular gender role theories rendered obsolete, theories of masculinities are increasingly replacing these. Masculinities may best be described as a sort of hierarchy of multiple ways of being a man. Fundamental in this is men’s own interactions with, and negotiations of masculinities. Whilst masculinity is constructed in the privileged position as being the normative way of ‘doing gender’, within this is a complex hierarchical structure in which different masculinities hold a different status. A status bestowed upon one man by other men. At the top of such a hierarchy however is the concept of hegemonic masculinity; essentially, the current best practice of being a man. This hierarchy is maintained through stigmatising language placing hegemonic masculinity in a superior position to both femininity, and other forms of masculinity, resulting in the oppression not only of women and specific groups of men (e.g. LGBT, BME and disabled men). Ultimately, those who do not enact masculinity consistently with the hegemonic norms risk marginalisation. Gender is constructed through ‘everyday practises and relationships’, and common discourses. Such create a requirement for men to compete against other men to gain a superior masculine status - e.g. the alpha male. It is this marginalisation associated with the adherence to a so called inferior masculinity which is associated with higher levels of psychological distress. Consequently the relationship between hegemonic masculinity and men’s health is one that has been repeatedly acknowledged. It has been labelled as a major factor in men’s reluctance to seek help and gain equal health outcomes to their female counterparts
- Throughout their life time, approximately 1 in 4 people will experience some form of mental illness. Amongst the most common of these are mood and anxiety disorders. Depression and related affective disorders (such as bipolar) have been strongly linked to suicidal ideation. Men are consistently diagnosed with depression significantly less than women.
- The suicide rate is rising While suicide accounts for less than 2% of UK deaths annually, it can be regarded as an ongoing problem requiring attention. Men account for 78% of completed suicides. In 2010 Thomas and Gunnell claimed to have done the first study accounting for suicide rates since records began in the 19th century. The trend of men completing suicide more than their female counterparts is one which is almost consistent not only universally, but through time. Thus suicide has been coined ‘a profoundly male issue’. Consequently it is men and their negotiations of suicidal expression and subsequent psychological distress, masculinity and the socio-economic factors associated with suicide which form the scope of this research.
- The internet forms a useful and robust space for collecting rich and detailed data. When used accurately, it has the potential to unlock a new domain for research. Yet few similar studies have utilised the internet as a valuable source of information often offering open access to existing discourses occurring between real people. It allows researchers not only to access populations they would otherwise be unable to engage (due to geographical constraints amongst other reasons) but also to witness how online communities interact. Thus allowing for us not only to better understand the interactions between men in need of support, their motivations for seeking support and their own constructions of their lived experiences, but can allow researchers to understand the role of such communities in shaping the help-seeking behaviours of men.