Addressing the Psychosocial Needs of Young Men: The Case of Northern Ireland

Abstract

This chapter specifically asks: How has the Northern Ireland conflict impacted on the lives of the young people in today's society'? Do they feel affected by what has happened and do they continue to live in fear? In line with the wider concerns of this book with the role of psychosocial programmes in promoting social change, this chapter explores how the impact of armed conflict, as it applies to interventions with young men, is conceptualised in the context of post-conflict Northern Ireland. The objectives of the case study are to ascertain how staff and young men attending various different types of psychosocial support groups conceptualised trauma, resilience and the impact of the conflict on young people in Northern Ireland and to determine if groups link such programmes to the wider processes of social change such as peacebuilding, development and social transformation. The study sought to evaluate if it mattered how groups conceptualised the problems they were dealing with and if this impacted on the services offered, and in turn if this had any bearing on the project's ability to contribute to wider social change? Further, the study sought to establish if such projects consider inter- and trans-generational impact of the conflict to be an issue and what they felt needed to be done to address the problems facing young men in today's society. Lastly, the objectives were to assess young men's help-seeking behaviour and how masculine ideologies impact on their help-seeking behaviours and if gender role socialisation has an impact on both the physical and mental help-seeking behaviour of men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved). (chapter)