‘His heads gone and that’s as far as it goes’; using IPA and an intimate insider approach to understand the impact of social deprivation on men’s mental health and help seeking in the South Wales Valleys
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This study explores how men from the South Wales Valleys, an area characterised by significant social deprivation, think about mental health issues and seeking help for them. Living in areas of social deprivation is widely acknowledged within the literature to negatively impact both of these aspects. A partial intimate insider research perspective was used to recruit and interview six participants and it was acknowledged that the population under study would be more likely to engage with someone who shared their background social context. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the data and to develop themes which pertained to the intersection of culture, social class, masculinity, and mental health difficulties. The two themes that are discussed here are A Cultural of Threat and Oppression: ‘It’s hard to live around here, I see the Valleys as fight of flight’ and Us in the Valleys and Them Outside ‘You have to be from the Valleys to talk to someone from the Valleys’. Each superordinate theme is made up of subthemes, and these will be explored in the article. The discussion focuses on essential insights from the data giving voice to this marginilised population and providing food for thought for mental health professionals and policy makers.
Institution: University of the West of England
Language: English
Subfield: Gender Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4407614334