'More than an athlete': Exploring the mental wellbeing and help-seeking experiences of young Pacific men in elite sports

Abstract

The aim of this thesis was to capture the sociocultural and contextual factors impacting upon mental wellbeing and help-seeking for young Pacific male athletes in New Zealand. This thesis expands on the researcher’s Master of Public Health thesis and contributes to the growing literature on Pacific male athletes’ experiences in elite sports, filling the research gaps related to depression, mental wellbeing, and help-seeking for this group. It is commonly understood that sociocultural and contextual factors have a profound effect on young athletes’ mental wellbeing; however, what is less understood is how these forces influence help-seeking behaviours, depression, and athletes’ lives away from sports. Similarly, it is well recognised that young Pacific men rarely seek help from formal mental health services, but what is less understood is how young Pacific male athletes navigate the help-seeking process and negotiate support from semi-formal (e.g., coaches, managers, and agents) and informal sources (e.g., friends, family, teammates, and partners). Using a mixedmethods approach, an online survey (n = 99), seven mini focus groups (n = 24), and twelve one-on-one interviews (n = 12) were carried out to explore the perspectives of young Pacific male elite athletes from a variety of sports played at the elite level (e.g., rugby league, rugby union, basketball, boxing, mixed martial arts, and soccer among others) and key stakeholders working with young Pacific male athletes (e.g., coaches, managers, administrators, and agents). Findings from this research illustrate that a variety of factors at the individual, familial, and organisational levels interact alongside the pressures of elite sports to both promote and hinder mental wellbeing and help-seeking for young Pacific male athletes. The wider societal factors that shape identity development, education, mental health stigma, economic obligations, and gender norms are also bought to the fore. The maladaptive and emotion-focussed coping strategies athletes use to cope with distress are also outlined, which often sees distress accumulate over time as athletes attempt to negate and conceal their distress; a phenomenon underpinned by hypermasculine norms that govern a culture of extreme self-reliance. Findings also show that athletes report high levels of subjective wellbeing and resilience, despite facing a plethora of stressors and barriers to seeking help for mental health issues, such as the potential personal and professional repercussions in doing so. This research ultimately aims to enable young Pacific male athletes, their families, and the individuals and organisations working with young Pacific male athletes, to better understand the sociocultural nuances and wider societal factors underpinning mental wellbeing and help-seeking for young Pacific male athletes. The significance of this study is that it provides new theoretical understandings of mental wellbeing and help-seeking for young Pacific male athletes and provides practical recommendations to support mental wellbeing and help-seeking for this group with a particular emphasis on the need for comprehensive multisectoral interventions at both the secondary school and senior elite levels of sport.