It’s how you look in your mate’s eyes: a systematic review and thematic analysis exploring UK men’s experiences of mental health and help seeking

Howard, Aaron Carl (2025) It’s how you look in your mate’s eyes: a systematic review and thematic analysis exploring UK men’s experiences of mental health and help seeking. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Background: Men are the highest risk group of suicide worldwide, but little is known about the mental health experiences of individual groups of men. This thesis portfolio therefore focuses exclusively on the mental health experiences of men in the United Kingdom (UK).

Method: The thesis portfolio consists of two studies: a systematic review which aimed to explore the experiences of men seeking support for mental health difficulties in the UK and an empirical paper which aimed to explore the mental health experiences of men living in former mining communities, a group theoretically at higher risk of mental health difficulties and less likely to access support.

Results: The systematic review presented four main themes. These are ‘service barriers’, ‘facilitators of help-seeking’, ‘lack of mental health literacy’, and ‘societal expectations.’ Results highlighted that different groups of men in the UK have unique experiences regarding mental health support seeking influenced by societal, familial, occupational, and individual factors. The empirical paper also presented four themes. These were ‘the old hard life was better than the new hard life’, ‘stoicism as an intergenerational survival strategy’, ‘mental health is good for others, but not men like us’, and ‘peer pressure maintains the status quo’. Results provided a rich understanding of the origins of masculine norms in the community and the mechanisms which maintain them.

Conclusions: The findings from both studies highlight the importance of further research into the unique mental health experiences of specific groups of men.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
Depositing User:	Nicola Veasy
Date Deposited:	27 Oct 2025 12:09
Last Modified:	27 Oct 2025 12:09
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/100779
DOI:

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