‘You don’t really want to hide it…’: exploring young working-class men’s mental health literacy

Abstract

Australia’s National Men’s Health Strategy 2020–2030 considers men from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds to be a priority population and foregrounds the importance of initiatives focused on empowerment. This article seeks to explore young working-class men’s experiences with mental health in their years immediately following compulsory schooling. Drawing data from a larger study, we explore five young men who openly discussed their mental health. The analysis focuses on where they struggled, how they struggled and what self-care they enacted. Adopting a health literacy framework, we highlight two broad themes: closing yourself off and opening up. While historically working-class manhood has been centred around stoicism and a reluctance to admitting vulnerability, these case studies suggest that the identity work around masculinities and mental health may be experiencing change.