No Assistance Necessary: Arab Men’s Attitudes towards Health Issues and Help-Seeking

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.