Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Peer support is increasingly advocated for promoting men's mental health. That said, men's peer connections are often socially intertwined with alcohol use, which can limit potential mental health gains. This article describes the gendered dimensions of alcohol use in men's peer mutual help for mental health. Drawing on photovoice interviews with 52 Canadian-based men, we inductively derived two themes: alcohol as social glue, and alcohol as social gloom. Alcohol as social glue delineated men's use of alcohol as a prop, primer or purge when connecting with other men. Herein, the level of alcohol use varied, but the rituals, and sometimes the disinhibitory effects of drinking were central to securing men's social connectedness. Alcohol as social gloom featured men's anti-archetype, alienation and aloneness narratives, the sum and parts of which contextualized and cautioned against alcohol use, especially in the context of peer mutual help for mental health. Highlighted were men's critiques of masculine drinking cultures in privileging sobriety as requisite to peer mental health promotion. The article traces the role of alcohol use in men's peer mutual help for mental health, underscoring prevailing traditional and emergent contemporary masculine norms and practices. To leverage men's peer mutual help for mental health there is a need to thoughtfully consider the social and structural determinants, and gendered dimensions of alcohol consumption. Men's health promotion in this milieu could be facilitated through harm reduction and substitution efforts, such as drinking less and consuming low-alcohol or non-alcoholic beverages, along with gender-responsive alcohol policies.
Oliffe et al. (Thu,) studied this question.