“I don’t Teach Violence, I Teach Self-Control”; The Framing of Mixed Martial Arts Between Mental Health and Well-Being

This paper draws on conceptual and analytical tools from cultural sociology to analyze media representations of the MMA right after the murder of a twenty-year-old boy, that took place in a small village in central Italy by a gang of young men, two of whom frequented a MMA gym. While often characterized as violent and uncivilized, MMA has a core following of fans who watch and practice MMA out of an interest in the effects of the sport in terms of health and well-being. Through in depth qualitative analysis of MMA media discourse offered by traditional and new media, this paper explores the way the MMA media constructs symbolic boundaries around different kinds of fights inside and outside the gym, through aesthetic and moral evaluations based on the hierarchical ‘distinctions’ between “violence” and “health” as possible outcomes of the MMA training process. Particularly, we carry out a discourse analysis based on Italian Newspapers, Magazines and Facebook groups dedicated to MMA, through which we frame the multiple representations of the discursive production built around the MMA in Italy. Our aim is to identify the different ways in which the discussion about this event provided narrative paths and points of view about the meaning of MMA, focusing on the reputational consequences concerning health, especially in its physical and mental expressions. This research may prove useful for scholars interested in MMA, culture, and sports media studies.

Role Identity, Dissonance, and Distress among Paramedics

Role identity theory describes the purpose and meaning in life that comes, in part, from occupying social roles. While robustly linked to health and well-being, this may become, however, when an individual is unable to fulfil the perceived requirements of an especially salient role in the way that they believe they should. Amid high rates of mental illness among public safety personnel, we interviewed a purposely selected sample of 21 paramedics from a single service in Ontario, Canada to explore incongruence between an espoused and able-to-enact paramedic role identity. Situated in an interpretivist epistemology, and using successive rounds of thematic analysis, we developed a framework for role identity dissonance wherein chronic, identity-relevant disruptive events cause emotional and psychological distress. While some participants were able to recalibrate their sense of self and understanding of the role, for others, this dissonance was irreconcilable, contributing to disability and lost time from work. In addition to contributing a novel perspective on paramedic mental health and well-being, our work also offers a modest contribution to the theory in using the paramedic context as an example to consider identity disruption through chronic workplace stress.

The Islamic Concept of Happiness: Psychological Analysis

The article is devoted to the study of the Islamic concept of happiness from the standpoint of psychological science. Two approaches to the understanding of happiness, originating in Antiquity, are considered: hedonistic and eudemonistic; the cultural specifi city of happiness is investigated through the prism of ethnocultural values. It outlines the views on psychological health and well-being in Islam, as well as the views on social and individual predictors of happiness of medieval and modern Muslim scholars. The author concludes that the concept of happiness and the idea of it has its own specifi city in diff erent cultures. The concept of happiness among Muslims is directly related to their religious values and worldview, as well as to the peculiarities of ethnic culture. Since Muslim communities are collectivist, the happiness of an individual is seen as closely related to the public good. For a Muslim, the path to happiness is associated with improving his character and the formation of moral values and behavior. Modern Psychology and Psychotherapy are developing the ideas about moral psychology and the ways of its formation as the basis for the psychological wellbeing of an individual.

Achieving Proportional Representation In A Reproductive Health Survey Through Social Media: Process And Recommendations

Background: The narrative surrounding women’s reproductive health has shifted from a medical model to an emphasis on reproductive well-being over different life-stages. We developed and piloted a tracker survey for monitoring women’s reproductive health and well-being in England, recruiting respondents online. This paper reports on the success of the online recruitment strategies in achieving a sample proportionally representative of the England general population.Methods: Recruitment was through Facebook and Instagram advertisements and dissemination through Twitter and a blog. At the end week one, the sample was reviewed and compared to the 2011 Census England population. From week two, recruitment targeted under-represented groups. Key data were compared with prevalence estimates from the Third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal-3).Results: Between 1 July-17 August 2021, 13,962 people initiated the online survey, with 11,578 completing it. Numbers were low initially, but peaked at 1700 survey initiations per day after increasing the daily advertisement budget on day seven. At the end of week one, minority ethnic groups and people without a degree or equivalent were under-represented. From week two, we altered the advertisement settings to show to people whose profile indicated they were a ‘high school leaver’ had ‘up to some high school’, worked in industries that do not typically require a degree or lived in local authorities with a high proportion of ethnic minority residents. This had a modest effect, with the final sample short of proportional representation in terms of ethnicity and education but close in terms of region and age. Compared to Natsal-3, we found consistency in the proportion of respondents reporting an abortion and a live birth in the last year, however, the proportion of our sample reporting ever having experienced infertility was significantly higher than in Natsal-3, as was the proportion of ‘planned’ pregnancies in the last year.Conclusions: It is possible to recruit large numbers of respondents online, relatively quickly, to complete a reproductive health survey. This will be valuable to track reproductive health and well-being at a national level over time. More work is needed to understand reasons for non-response among under-represented groups.

The Experiences and Views of Service Providers on the Mental Health and Well-Being Services for Syrian Refugees in Coventry and Warwickshire

Objectives: Previous literature demonstrated that, even when mental health and psychological support services are available for refugees, there may still be obstacles in accessing services. This is the first known study to explore the experiences of mental-health and well-being services for Syrian refugees in Coventry and Warwickshire, United Kingdom. The research investigates the views and perceptions of service providers on the current mental-health and well-being services provided for this population. Methods: Eight service providers participated in semistructured interviews and focus groups, and the data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Three main themes emerged from an analysis of the data: “positive aspects of service delivery,” “service challenges,” and “recommendations for service improvements and quality.” Conclusion: The findings bring to the fore specific gaps in current provision and interpreting services. Recommendations for proposed improvements in service provision and policy as well as clinical implications are included in this article.