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An intersectional approach to understandings of mental health inequalities among men with disability.

ABSTRACT: Disability is a key social identity or social category that is associated with significant social disadvantage. For men, having a disability can be discordant with their masculine identity. Self-reliance is one component of masculinity that is known to be important to men with disabilities, however it is also known to be associated with adverse mental health outcomes in the broader adult male population. Intersectionality approaches offer a means of examining the way that the effect of self-reliance on mental health might vary between those with and without a disability. Among a sample of 12,052 men aged 18-55 years from the Ten-to-Men study, we used effect measure modification (EMM) to examine the way that self-reliance modifies the relationship between disability and depressive symptoms. Disability was assessed using the Washington Group Short Set of questions, which capture functional limitations. Results showed that men with disabilities who reported higher conformity to self-reliance norms had much worse mental health than non-disabled men with low conformity to self-reliance, as measured in terms of depressive symptoms (PRR: 9.40, 95%CI 7.88, 11.22, p-value<0.001). We found evidence of positive EMM of depressive symptoms by conformity to self-reliance on the additive scale (RERI: 2.84, 95%CI 1.26, 4.42, p-value<0.001). These results provide evidence that high conformity to self-reliance norms exerts a particularly damaging effect on the mental health of men with disabilities. Given that men with disabilities are more likely to rely on help and support from others, these results provide important insights for the delivery of services to men with disability.

SUBMITTER: King TL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6700447 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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An intersectional approach to understandings of mental health inequalities among men with disability.

King Tania L TL Shields Marissa M Shakespeare Tom T Milner Allison A Kavanagh Anne A

SSM - population health 20190802

Disability is a key social identity or social category that is associated with significant social disadvantage. For men, having a disability can be discordant with their masculine identity. Self-reliance is one component of masculinity that is known to be important to men with disabilities, however it is also known to be associated with adverse mental health outcomes in the broader adult male population. Intersectionality approaches offer a means of examining the way that the effect of self-reli ...[more]

PMID: 31453312

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Project description:There is an increasing focus on structural and social determinants of inequalities in young people's mental health across different social contexts. Taking higher education as a specific social context, it is unclear whether university attendance shapes the impact of intersectional social identities and positions on young people's mental health outcomes. Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy (MAIHDA) was used to predict the odds that mental distress during adolescence, sex, socioeconomic status, sexual identity, ethnicity, and their intersections, were associated with young people's mental health outcomes at age 25, and whether this differed based on university attendance. Data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England cohort study were analysed with the MAIHDA approach, and the results did not reveal any evidence of multiplicative intersectional (i.e., aggravating) effects on young people's mental health outcomes. However, important main effects of social identities and positions (i.e., an additive model) were observed. The findings suggested that being female or identifying as a sexual minority increased the odds of young people experiencing mental health problems at age 25, although the odds of self-harming were half the size for sexual minorities who had attended university. Black and Asian individuals were less likely to declare a mental illness than White individuals. Young people who grew up in a more deprived area and had not attended university were more likely to experience mental health problems. These findings imply that mental health interventions for young people do not necessarily have to be designed exclusively for specific intersectional groups. Further, university attendance appears to produce better mental health outcomes for some young people, hence more investigation is needed to understand what universities do for young people, and whether this could be replicated in the wider general population.

Dataset Information

An intersectional approach to understandings of mental health inequalities among men with disability.

Publications

An intersectional approach to understandings of mental health inequalities among men with disability.

Similar Datasets

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