Youth mental health has become an increasing concern in public discourse, especially during the covid pandemic. With a growing number of courses and guidance related to emotional support and self-management, emotional wellbeing has also become a significant focus of education in Finland (Ahonen, 2020; Brunila, 2012b). However, the connections between mental health and social structures, such as masculinity ideals, remain understudied in Finland and educational contexts globally. In my research, I examine young Finnish men’s views of the connections between masculinity ideals, public mental health discourses, and young men’s mental health.

The basis for this research is the understanding that gender is socially constructed and that gender, and other identities, are relational and performative, constituted in discourses producing gendered conditions of possibility for individuals (Butler 1988; 1990/2006). I follow Foucault’s theorisation (1982) on power and discourses, in which discourses are understood as power-knowledge systems. The mechanics of power produce different types of knowledge, which in turn reinforce the power-knowledge systems by defining “normal” or ideal codes of conduct. These norms constitute our lived experiences and gendered subjectivities, governing and regulating the way we express ourselves and our gender (Bacchi & Goodwin, 2016; Davies & Gannon, 2011). This research focuses on masculinity ideals, understood as contextual set of characteristics often associated with the behaviour of men, setting a standard for what is seen as appropriate behaviour (Brunila, 2019; Francis, 2008; Hyvönen, 2021). The first objective of this research is to examine what kind of masculinity ideals young Finnish men identify in their lives, how they align with these ideals, and how they view these ideals to be connected to their mental health.

The second objective is to analyse what kind of public mental health discourses young men produce and how they understand their mental health through these discourses. Following McLeod and Wright (2016), instead of defining what mental health is, the emphasis is on what the concept of mental health does, how is it talked about, and with what kind of consequences. Like gender, mental health is understood in this research as a socially and discursively constructed concept. Several scholars argue that mental health has become kind of “empty signifier” - a multifaceted concept with several cultural meanings attached to it, acquiring many meanings in everyday discourses, and used to justify many kinds of youth policies and support systems (Aneshensel et al. 2013; McLeod & Wright, 2015). The expanding focus on mental health has raised critical questions about the increasing governing that individuals are subjected to, justified with objectives of wellbeing. The concept of therapeutic culture has been used to describe how therapeutic vocabulary, practices, and “struggling with the self” have become an essential part of society and social life (Brunila et al., 2021; Brunila & Siivonen, 2016; Klein & Mills, 2017; Nehring et al. 2020). Therapeutic culture can also contribute to upholding and dismantling gender ideals by upholding prevailing normativities with gendered emotional practices and discourses but also providing tools to negotiate with these norms (Hyvönen, 2021; Kolehmainen, 2018;2021).

Based on the theoretic framework, my research questions are: i) What kind of discourses of masculinity and mental health do young Finnish men identify in their lives, and how are these discourses constructed? ii) How do young Finnish men align with and understand their mental health through masculinity ideals and mental health discourses? With young men, I refer to individuals who identify as men aged 15-29.

Analysing young men’s views on the masculinity ideals and mental health discourses prevalent in society and education can bring new perspectives to young men’s mental health and deepen the understanding of men’s diverse lived experiences.

The analysis was conducted applying a thematic discursive approach to the open answers in a young men’s mental health questionnaire (n=975), conducted in November 2020 by Nyyti ry, a Finnish NGO supporting students’ mental health, and the Family Federation of Finland. The anonymous questionnaire was targeted at young men about their experiences and views about their own mental health and the general atmosphere towards young men’s mental health. The questionnaire reached 975 individuals, of whom over 83 per cent were aged between 15 and 29. The answers by women (n=65) were left out of the analysis. The analysis process consisted of two concurrent phases: thematising the data and analysing the constructed themes with a discursive approach. First the data was coded to identify repeated patterns across data. After initial coding, the codes were renamed to more accurate ones, merging conceptually similar codes, and assessing the relevance of infrequent codes (Saldaña, 2013). This descriptive coding produced a categorised inventory of the answers, summarising the data, and was essential for further analysis and interpretation. Guided by the research questions and previous research, the coded data was examined inspired by discursive reading (Brunila, 2016; Brunila & Ikävalko, 2012; Lanas et al., 2020), which is not a clearly defined method, but a way to construct meanings of the data. Discursive reading entails the understanding that discourses and discursive practices produce reality with certain effects, instead of being just a neutral description of something. The first objective was to analyse the discursive repertoires used to describe and construct meanings and understanding of men, masculinities, and mental health. The second objective was to analyse what kinds of subject positions these discourses were presented to create and how young men align themselves to and within these discourses. Gender, masculinity, and mental health can be understood as discursive categories that produce conditions of possibility to talk about and align oneself to these phenomena (Lanas et al., 2020), and the role of individuals in meaning-making simultaneously agentic and guided by prevailing discourses (Venäläinen, 2021). With the thematic discursive approach, the data was constructed into two overarching themes. The first theme comprises of repeated repertoires about men, masculinities, and mental health. The second theme focuses on public mental health discourses.

Young men produce masculinity discourses which highlight how the traditional masculinity ideals remain strong in Finnish society, upheld with narrow representations of masculinity. These ideals are portrayed as restricting, limiting the actions of young men, and to create gendered conditions of opportunity to show weakness, ask for help, and talk about mental health. However, young men position themselves to and within these masculinity discourses in various ways. Echoing Davies and Gannon (2011), the respondents can be seen to both actively take on and question prevailing gender norms. However, as suggested by previous research (see Waling 2019), there was a strong tendency in the data to position men as limited and governed by masculinity ideals. In addition, young Finnish men produce diverse, interlinked, and sometimes contradictory reactions to the public mental health discourses. Young men demonstrate discontented to the way men’s mental health is addressed and how the prevailing mental health discourses are insufficient in quality and quantity. Furthermore, young men construct critique towards the individualised mental health discourses, in which men themselves are seen as both the reason and the solution to their possible mental health problems. Moreover, the public mental health discourses are seen as insufficient and discriminatory towards men, eliciting an anti-feminist reaction. In conclusion, the results of this study indicate a clear need for more diverse masculinity and mental health discourses in Finland and internationally, both in educational and wider societal contexts. The results indicate a need to address the structural, gendered expectations in order to widen the positions available for men in society and to find useful solutions to support the mental health of young men. For education, this research provides reasons and justification to critically examine the gendered practices and wellbeing discourses utilised in educational contexts.

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