view from the terraces, The

Mental Health Nursing,  Sep/Oct 2002  by Pringle, Alan

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Football therapy

Research into the causes of mental illness abounds. Thoughts on how to promote good mental helth - even defining it - are harder to come by. Alan Pringle's research into the benefits of belonging to a football club and following its fortunes offers insights into this question

Football supporters, by and large, continue to receive a very negative presentation from the media and much of the research done into football and football fans has focused on negative aspects of supporters' behaviour. Examples include Williams's (1992) studies of racism in football and Dunning Murphy and Williams' studies around hooliganism (1988). This focus on the negative elements occurs despite the fact that for every fan in trouble, hundreds of thousands appear to derive pleasure and benefit from attending matches. As an example of this, Fig 1 outlines the number of people arrested in England and Wales in football related-incidents and the number who attended matches in the 2000-2001 season.

Background

Supporting a football club and watching the game live is essentially an experience in group participation. Whether the crowd is 20 people watching a Sunday league game at a local public park, or 68,000 watching Manchester United at Old Trafford, the emotions and passions appear to have similarities running through them. These are often around identification and inclusion within a group and the sometimes cathartic behaviours this encourages. Argyle (1996) claimed that attending a sports event is closely linked to identification and inclusion within a group and that identification with both the players as people and the club as an entity appear important.

Zillman and Paulus (1993) echo this idea. They suggest that the defining characteristic that separates fans from mere spectators is the formation of alliances whereby fans `perceive themselves as members of a tacitly existing group to which the objects of their fandom belong' (p 604).

Previous research has attempted to link football to health. This has included a study which found a significant increase in mortality from coronary heart disease and stroke in a population of Dutch men aged 45 years or over on the day the Dutch team was eliminated by the French during the 1996 European football championship. It compared mortality during the five days before and after the match (Witte et al, 2000).

Masterton and Mander's study (1990) at the Department of Psychological Medicine, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh showed reductions in emergency psychiatric presentations to hospital occurred during and after the finals of the World Cup.

The study

This study explores the link between attending football and the possible impact on mental health for supporters of Mansfield Town (`the Stags') a small club in the third division of the Football League. Defining what a state of mental health actually is, can, of course, prove problematic. Clare (1980) notes that the concept of defining mental health and mental illness `appears to permit a bewildering number of interpretations'. He observes that even as far back as the 1950s the question of definitions around mental health and illness led Lewis to state that 'anyone who has reflected upon the many definitions of health, and mental health in particular, will conclude that there is no consensus'.

Herron and Mortimer (1999) attempted to define mental health from the point of view of lay perspectives rather than professional definitions. What emerged as the key components is seen in figure 2.

The study aims to discover whether supporting a club can help develop some of these components in a positive way.

The fans

Mansfield is a community of 103,000 people and many of the elements, which contribute towards social exclusion, are very clearly in evidence locally Like many towns in the Nottinghamshire coalfield area, it has changed dramatically since the collapse of the mining industry. Recent figures (Mansfield District Council, 2000) show the town to be the most deprived local authority in Nottinghamshire with a higher crime rate than the rest of the county, with a higher than national average figure for unemployment, low wages and a higher than average mortality rate.

The process

For the present study, a three phase system was used consisting of diaries, interviews and questionnaire. The diaries were used to gather data and analysed to find and develop themes. These themes form the basis of follow up, semi-structured, interviews with the fans to refine and clarify the concepts raised through the diary study.

The fans were recruited through the club's website and in response to articles in the media. Diaries covering nearly 40 matches throughout the season have been collected and analysed and some distinct themes have begun to come through which reflect the variety of experiences and emotions which watching a club like Mansfield can produce. These have included: A sense of belonging, a sense of pessimism; a sense of hope; a sense of frustration and increased levels of positive mood.