***During graduate school, my dissertation focused on unearthing the barriers to seeking mental health services in a small group of male collegiate football players. Over the next few blogs, I'll share snippets of the research and results from my study, as well as entries that are inspired by the participants.***
As a clinician, I am always interested in intersectionality--how an individual's various identities intersect and influence one another. Athletic identity tends to be particularly salient for many folks for many reasons, a few of which include: early engagement in sport, identification with coaches as role models, tendency for sport to be a shared family activity, time invested playing, etc. The particular salience of athletic identity for any one person is unique and informed by a large number of social and individual factors. The following excerpt is from my study.
"Athletics provide one context for the socialization of many young boys. Sports play a pivotal role in teaching values and gender norms for many young boys who are learning not only what it means to be an athlete, but correspondingly what it means to be a man competing for value in American society (Whannel (2007) as cited in Steinfeldt, 2009, pg. 261). In this way, “boys learn cultural values and behaviors, such as competition, toughness, and winning at all costs, that are culturally valued aspects of masculinity” (Messner, 1989, pg. 74). Research examining the degree to which a person identifies with their athletic role, using the Athlete Identification Measurement Scale (AIMS; Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder, 1993) has suggested sports provide an especially powerful arena for the socialization of young boys that may translate into a stronger identification with their athletic role and the values within sport: "As a result, the athlete’s emerging self-image often reflects an identity associated with the glorified athletic self (Messner, 1992). This athletic identity is formed by a combination of cognitive, affective, behavioral, and social aspects that are related to the role of being an athlete" (Brewer & Cornelius, 2001; Murphy, Petitpas, & Brewer, 1996). This identity development process, facilitated through sport socialization experiences, encourages many young men to adopt a win-at-all-costs mentality that subjugates personal needs in order to meet the team’s goal of winning (Watson, 2006)” (Steinfeldt, 2009, pg. 262). Sports provide an influential context for young men to internalize the values of sport which reinforce traditional masculine norms of American society."
When we discussed the values of football, the players described self-sacrifice and playing through pain as dominant cultural values. They spoke of early locker room mantras including the ubiquitous "No pain, no gain", "man-up", "never back down", and the especially problematic "boys don't cry". These mantras are just a small sample of the powerful messages potentially received by young boys which serve to reinforce traditional masculine norms.
These norms are not necessarily always problematic or damaging, nor are they universal, but the players indicated that these cultural norms influenced their perceptions of seeking help. Generally, the players described their perception that seeking help was a sign of weakness. That men, as a rule, should try to address their problems on their own and would only seek help from those they know, for sure, have gone through something similar. They similarly described an unspoken rule that men should not offer help to another teammate, who they know to is going through a hard time, unless they have explicitly asked for advice.
Coaches, in particular, play an important role in the socialization of young male athletes. They set the cultural norms for the team, and serve as powerful male role models, often at a time of identity formation. As a clinician, I make sure to have an open conversation around the messages being sent to young athletes and the ways in which coaches, and athletic departments, can create a culture which values help seeking and offering help to others as an act of strength and growth. We work to create a T.E.A.M culture, which stands for: Talk More, Educate the Team, Advocate, and redefines Man Up. "Talk More" involves increasing role clarity and expectations, increase communication between team and coaches, and create supportive team values and norms. "Educate the team" involves providing psychoeducational workshops about signs and symptoms of common mental health concerns. "Advocate" involves encouraging players to talk to each other and reach out to others for help, and provide information about campus/community resources. Finally, "Man Up" redefines what it means to be a man--that there's strength in reaching out and seeking help.
Brewer, B. W., Van Raalte, J. L., & Linder, D. E. (1993). Athletic identity: Hercules' muscles or Achilles heel?. International Journal Of Sport Psychology, 24(2), 237-254.
Messner, M.A. (1989). Masculinities and athletic careers. Gender & Society March 1989 vol. 3 no. 1, 71-88. doi: 10.1177/089124389003001005.
Steinfeldt, J. A., Steinfeldt, M. C., England, B., & Speight, Q. L. (2009). Gender role conflict and stigma toward help-seeking among college football players. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 10, 261–272.