FCMHW PROGRAM: Masculinity and mental health: shaping the attitudes, behaviours and education of young men through sport. Contact: Murray Drummond
Overview:
Young males have a significant risk of self-harm and suicide, while those who identify as Indigenous and LGBTIQ are at even greater risk. Unlike the transition period from childhood to adolescence where boys are relatively insulated within the constructs of their school and family environment, the transition phase through adolescence to early adulthood is less controlled and requires immediate attention.
Many young males must navigate this part of their lives alone without "safe spaces" where they can attain support for a range of physical and emotional needs. An ideal “safe space” for boys and young males is sport, as it can play a role in protective mental health through socialization and engagement. However, some masculinised sports, such as Australian football, rugby and cricket where fraternal bonding is traditionally strong, may not promote positive forms of masculinity.
The club environments can also provide barriers to accessible, and health promoting, masculine ideologies. Given that mental health concerns are often perceived as feminized conditions, changing traditional masculinised sports to inclusive and understanding “safe spaces” will allow young men to thrive emotionally. Sport can provide a unique site in which this can take place.
This research will be conducted in South Australia and the Northern Territory and involve Indigenous and non-Indigenous cohorts. This Program aims to listen to the voices of young males around mental health and wellbeing within masculinised sporting cultures, explore the way in which sporting clubs work with young males around mental health and wellbeing, investigate the way in which masculinities are created, maintained and perpetuated within masculinised sporting clubs, and promote the importance of mental health and wellbeing as a key element of sporting club culture.
This program plans to assist traditional masculinised sporting clubs partnering with the Program to become inviting and nurturing spaces for young males through traditional and contemporary education initiatives developed as an outcome of this program.