McGrane, Amy, Bird, Niamh, Arten, Chelsea and O'Sullivan, Katriona (2020) “All My Problems Go Away for 90 Minutes”: How Football and Psychotherapy Improves Young Men’s Mental Health. American Journal of Men’s Health, 14 (5). ISSN 1557-9891
Preview
KO-Football-2020.pdf
Download (132kB) | Preview
Abstract
This qualitative research sought to establish the impact of an 8-week program combining football and one-to-one
psychotherapy on young males’ mental health, determining the factors that predict help-seeking behaviors in this group
of men. Pre- and post-participation focus groups were used as the method of data collection. Six males (19–35 years old;
M = 25.5) completed both pre-intervention and follow-up focus groups. Help-seeking behaviors were influenced by the
appeal of football and the perception of the counselor being accessible. Barriers included gender norms, socialization,
financial difficulties, and challenging social landscapes. Post-participation focus groups revealed that positive social and
counseling relationships facilitated improved mental health. Sport was deemed an acceptable medium to deliver a
mental health intervention as it increased social connections and facilitated help-seeking. Findings support previous
research indicating that combining sports and psychotherapy positively impacts young males’ mental health.
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Additional Information: | Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). Cite as: McGrane A, Bird N, Arten C, O’Sullivan K. “All My Problems Go Away for 90 Minutes”: How Football and Psychotherapy Improves Young Men’s Mental Health. American Journal of Men’s Health. September 2020. doi:10.1177/1557988320959992 |
Keywords: | Male; mental health; mental health services; counseling; psychotherapy; sport; football; Ireland; |
Academic Unit: | Assisting Living & Learning,ALL institute Faculty of Science and Engineering > Psychology |
Item ID: | 15264 |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/1557988320959992 |
Depositing User: | Katriona O'Sullivan |
Date Deposited: | 18 Jan 2022 15:53 |
Journal or Publication Title: | American Journal of Men’s Health |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Refereed: | Yes |
Related URLs: | |
URI: | https://mu.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/15264 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
Repository Staff Only (login required)
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year