Applying The Silences Framework to explore the mental health of professional footballers

Souter, Gary Michael (2023) Applying The Silences Framework to explore the mental health of professional footballers. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

Professional footballers are increasingly vulnerable to developing common mental health symptoms and disorders. This is highlighted by the untimely deaths, by suicide, of the German international goalkeeper Robert Enke in 2009, and the former Wales international player and manager Gary Speed in 2011. It can be argued that these two players were marginalised and evidently suffered in silence. The demands within the professional game are significant, and there is an increasing pressure to perform. In addition to being exposed to the risk of significant life events in line with the general population, footballers are also frequently exposed to the distress caused by injury, psychological pressure, changing and ending of contracts, and club dynamics. As part of this qualitative study, eighteen current first team professional footballers were interviewed from across the English Football League (EFL) in order to explore how male professional footballers are affected by mental health. Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis (2006) was applied along with ‘The Silences Framework’ (Serrant-Green, 2010) to allow the voices of this marginalised group to be heard. This study makes an original contribution to the knowledge base as it is the first study to innovatively apply ‘The Silences Framework’ to a sporting context. This study does not just explore the views of professional footballers, a group which was little researched or understood before, but takes an iterative approach to explore these views within the context of closed networks and communities. This approach makes the findings unique in bringing out issues that have not been explored before such as the key themes of social networks, environment, help seeking and support, masking vulnerabilities, and mental health. The mental health theme is split into two sub themes which focus on the impact on self and the reaction of others. This study aimed to help identify issues that can impact upon a footballer’s mental health, understand how social construction occurs within football and identify the issues that affect men’s help seeking behaviour. Recommendations for further research, implications for practice, and for policy are identified with the aim of improving the mental health of professional footballers.