School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales, Wallance Wurth Building (C27), Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
School of Nursing, The University of British Columbia, 2211 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 2B5, Canada.
Health Promot Int. 2024 Jun 1;39(3). doi: 10.1093/heapro/daae046.
Peer support has a long history of helping people navigate mental health challenges and is increasingly utilized within men's mental health promotion initiatives. Despite considerable research conceptualizing and evaluating peer support in various contexts, little is known about the gendered dimensions of men's peer support and mutual help for mental health. This article provides an empirically informed commentary on men's peer support and informal help-seeking preferences to make recommendations for future directions for research and practice. Research examining men's peer support is emergent and the available evidence suggests that there is potential to conceptually align with many men's values and preferences for mental health help-seeking. Peer support offers a non-clinical, strength-based adjunct to professional support that may aid men in navigating a range of mental health challenges. Consideration must be given to the influence of gender socialization and men's diverse experiences with developing and maintaining peer relationships. It should not be assumed that authentic and supportive relationships will naturally form when men congregate together. As a growing number of interventions and programs emerge targeted at boys and men, there are important opportunities to leverage these health promotion efforts to encourage and coach men to engage in mutual help. Opportunities for research and practice are discussed to better understand and harness the health-promoting potential of peer support for men's mental health.
同伴支持在帮助人们应对心理健康挑战方面有着悠久的历史，并且在男性心理健康促进计划中越来越多地被采用。尽管有大量研究从概念上和评估上对同伴支持在各种背景下进行了研究，但对于男性同伴支持和互助对心理健康的性别维度知之甚少。本文对男性同伴支持和非正式求助偏好进行了实证研究评论，为未来的研究和实践方向提出了建议。研究男性同伴支持的研究还处于初期阶段，现有证据表明，在概念上与许多男性的价值观和寻求心理健康帮助的偏好相一致是有潜力的。同伴支持为专业支持提供了一种非临床的、基于优势的辅助手段，可能有助于男性应对各种心理健康挑战。必须考虑到性别社会化和男性在发展和维持同伴关系方面的不同经历的影响。当男性聚集在一起时，不应假设真实和支持性的关系会自然形成。随着越来越多针对男孩和男性的干预措施和项目的出现，有重要的机会利用这些健康促进工作来鼓励和指导男性进行互助。讨论了研究和实践的机会，以更好地理解和利用同伴支持对男性心理健康的促进潜力。
