TITLE:
No Assistance Necessary: Arab Men’s Attitudes towards Health Issues and Help-Seeking
AUTHORS:
Richard A. Hall
KEYWORDS:
Mental-Health, Arabs, Men, Identity, Help-Seeking, Attitudes
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.9 No.11,
November
4,
2021
ABSTRACT: To what extent do gender and culture impact people’s
attitudes towards help-seeking? It has been well documented that gender plays a
large role in determining the likelihood that an individual will look to
external agencies in order to remedy issues of physical or mental health and
that women tend to have more positive attitudes towards help-seeking than do
men. However, this paper looks to investigate the intersection between gender
and culture to understand the impact that different societies have on the
formation and maintenance of attitudes towards help-seeking. In order to do
this, this study utilised thematic analysis to highlight the attitudes of 3
Muslim Arab men, aged 24 - 32, in the United Arab Emirates, towards issues of
mental illness and physical injury (as both are often temporary and treatable).
Although much of the findings of this study were consistent with previous
studies using Western participants, there were also cultural repertoires
utilised which suggested that social stigma and cultural practices may further
impact men’s tendency to seek help from external agencies. Recognition of these
differences may impact upon the promotion and delivery of healthcare in Arab
countries by suggesting that providing Western treatments to Arab men,
particularly for mental illness, is unlikely to be effective without
cultural-specific adaptations.