Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyse and interpret family life as an area of individuals’ emotional work and investments. The perspective of the above mentioned analysis is designated by the sociology of mental health. Relationships within a family have undeniable influence on the state of people’s mental health. These relationships can be a source of support as well as emotional burden. Families can either compensate for the social stress individuals experience due to processes at the macro level or enhance the emotional tension resulting from social stress. The main method used in this study is meta-analysis of epidemiological and clinical data concerning the mental health of the global (WHO) and Polish population (EZOP-Poland) and my own research – a nationwide, representative survey (N=1,000) carried out in Poland, which was part of a broader theoretical and empirical project devoted to the process of social construction of the categories of mental health, disease and disorder in late modern society. I also refer to my qualitative research including twenty in-depth interviews with psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists who had experience in carrying out family, couples and individual therapy. The research objective was to find out whether and in what way some issues described from the socio-cultural perspective manifest themselves in the form of problems with which people turn to psychotherapists.
 The analysis and interpretation of data from the above mentioned sources enable us to put forward a thesis that living within a family entails not necessarily an alternative (either emotional burden or support), but a conjunction (both emotional burden and support). In this context the practical solutions that enable families to protect and strengthen the individual’s mental health should be searched for.
Highlights
Studies in the field of sociology of mental health designate an important research area nowadays
I confront the results of empirical studies on subjective concern about one’s mental health declared by the representatives of contemporary Polish society with the objective data on the prevalence of certain mental disorders of men and women of different marital status
It should be noted that the presented data do not allow us to determine whether the symptoms of the disorder appeared before or after the breakdown of the relationship. Another disorder considered in the EZOP Poland research was neurasthenia,15 occurring with a similar frequency in men and women of the majority of analysed marital statuses, with the exception of people living in informal relationships, amongst whom neurasthenia symptoms were declared by ten times more women than men (2.3% and 0.2%, respectively) – the difference was statistically significant
Summary
Studies in the field of sociology of mental health designate an important research area nowadays. I confront the results of empirical studies on subjective concern about one’s mental health declared by the representatives of contemporary Polish society with the objective data on the prevalence of certain mental disorders (and broadly understood – mental health problems) of men and women of different marital status. Confrontation of these results contributes to understanding the patterns of gendered subjective-objective mental well-being experiences. Afterwards, I deal with empirical data concerning social support (within and outside a family) and the mental health of men and women of different marital status according to Polish epidemiological research EZOP Poland. The qualitative data enable us to illustrate the micro social context of the mechanisms captured in the broader scale
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