McGrane, Amy and Bird, Niamh and 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

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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:	https://doi.org/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
URI:	Publisher
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

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