look who’s talking contemporary views and experiences of emotional support please do not cite or...
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Look who’s talking
Contemporary views and experiences of emotional
support
Please do not cite or quote without authors’ permission
Main themes
Beliefs about ‘Emotions talk’ in general ‘Formal’ emotional support
Practices relating to Informal emotional support through
relationships/social networks Formal emotional support through
professionals/those trained to help or listen
About the survey data
From the 2007 British Social Attitudes survey Annual survey (since 1983) run by National
Centre for Social Research In-home interview, with modular structure
60 attitudinal and behavioural ‘items’ on emotional difficulties/support (including WEMWBS)
Supporting data on demogs/wider characteristics Random sample of 2,100 aged 18+ in
Scotland, England and Wales
As a society, we are (increasingly) at ease
with ‘emotions talk’
General attitudes towards emotions talk
Agree strongly/agree
Neither agree nor
disagree
Disagree/ disagree strongly
Don’t know
I find it easy to talk about my feelings 55 20 25 *
People spend too much time talking about their feelings
35 25 40 *
I grew up in the sort of household where people didn’t talk about their feelings
49 14 37 *
People nowadays spend more time talking about their feelings
67 20 12 2
It’s important to me to be able to talk about my feelings
68 18 14 -
‘I grew up in the sort of household where people didn’t really talk about their feelings’ - % agreeing/disagreeing by age group
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
18 to 24 25 to 34 35 to 44 45 to 54 55 to 64 65 to 74 75+
Agree
Disagree
But attitudes towards emotions talk remain highly
patterned
Belonging to ‘most positive’ group by age group and sex (%)
2124 25
13
47 48
41
21
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
18 to 29 30 to 44 45 to 64 65+
Males
Females
And comfort with ‘emotions talk’ in general is not the same as feeling
comfortable talking to professionals
Attitudes towards formal emotional support
Agree strongly/agree
Neither agree nor
disagree
Disagree/ disagree strongly
DK
I’d feel comfortable talking to my GP 58 14 25 3
I’d feel comfortable talking to a therapist or counsellor
38 23 35 5
I’d know how to find a therapist or counsellor 51 12 33 5
Counselling or therapy is only for people with really serious problems
31 23 42 3
I don’t really know anything about counselling or therapy
35 19 43 4
If I had seen a therapist or counsellor, I wouldn’t want anybody else to know
43 27 26 5
Would feel comfortable talking to GP/therapist if feeling worried, stressed or down, by age group (%)
44
52
6568
33
42 41
30
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
18 to 29 30 to 44 45 to 64 65+
GP
Therapist/counsellor
Most people still have powerful
informal networks of social and
emotional support
Talk-based emotional support
Actual - 47% have actually spoken to a friend or relative once a month or more; 56% to spouse or partner
Hypothetical - 67% ‘very likely’ to talk to spouse or partner; 43% ‘very likely’ to talk to friend/relative
Networks of potential support
70% have at least three people they can ‘turn to’ for emotional support; 40% have five or more
44% talk to friends or family in person every day or almost every day; 37% do so by phone
But…
Women remain more connected than men Younger people have much wider networks
in general Differences in contact levels by age are
amplified by use of ICTs Strong income effects – connectedness
increasing with affluence
Proportion with three or more people could turn to, by age group and gender
58
42
32
26
57
48
41
30
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
18 to 24 25 to 44 45 to 64 65 +
Male
Female
Daily face to face contact by age group and gender
60
3530
26
71
52
4345
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
18 to 24 25 to 44 45 to 59 60+
Males
Females
Daily phone contact by age group and gender
42
34
23 24
60
5146 45
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
18 to 24 25 to 44 45 to 59 60+
Males
Females
Daily text contact by age group and gender
66
33
24
5
76
49
32
6
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
18 to 24 25 to 44 45 to 59 60+
Males
Females
Patterns of informal support vary across the
lifecourse for both men and women
26% 25%22%
29%
66%
52%
8%10%
65%
50%
3% 4%
67%
30%
0% 0%0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Male Female Male Female
18 to 29 30 to 44
45 to 64 65 +
Spouse/partner Mother
Person most likely to turn to in face of emotional difficulty
Most likely to turn to same sex friend in face of emotional difficulty
13% 13%
7%
16%
6%
14%
3%
16%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
Male Female
18 to 29
30 to 44
45 to 64
65 +
It’s not just about talk – but non talk-based responses
are highly patterned too
66
5860
66
33 33
45
59
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
18 to 24 25 to 44 45 to 59 60+
Males
Females
% very or fairly likely to deal with difficulties through bottling things up
37 38
32
19
3026
28
11
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
18 to 24 25 to 44 45 to 59 60+
Males
Females
% very or fairly likely to deal with difficulties through drinking alcohol
73
5963
53
59
50
64
52
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
18 to 24 25 to 44 45 to 59 60+
Males
Females
% very or fairly likely to deal with difficulties through exercise
2419
24
13
3640
37
28
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
18 to 24 25 to 44 45 to 59 60+
Males
Females
% very or fairly likely to deal with difficulties through eating
30
1713 14
53
46
38
29
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
18 to 24 25 to 44 45 to 59 60+
Males
Females
% very or fairly likely to deal with difficulties through shopping
Despite ‘confessional
culture’, use of formal talk-based support remains
rare
Contact with formal emotional support – ever and last year (%)
Ever Last year
Your GP 30.9 19.2
A psychologist 2.4 0.7
A psychiatrist 3.5 1.9
A therapist or counsellor you saw in person 13.1 4.1
A therapist or counsellor you spoke to by telephone 1.9 0.8
Any therapist/counsellor 13.6 4.3
Any psychologist, psychiatrist, therapist or counsellor 16.1 5.6
Someone from a support service who is trained to help people or to listen 3.1 1.3
Social worker or care worker 2.4 1.6
Minister/ priest/other religious leader 3.7 2.1
Any of the above 40.2 24.5
Contact with formal emotional support, ever, by age group (%)
32
21
1614
39
29
2018
49
38
19
16
37
32
75
40
31
1614
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Any formal GP Any psy Any therapy
18 to 29
30 to 44
45 to 64
65 +
Total
But use of prescription
medication remains more common –
especially for some groups
Use of prescription medication
15% of men and 26% of women report use ‘ever’ of medication in response to emotional difficulties
Not surprisingly, those who have used meds are more likely to have been in receipt of talk-based help But 56% report never having spoken to any professional
except a GP (and 34% not even a GP)
Poorer people are relatively more likely to have been in receipt of meds and less likely to have been in receipt of talk-based support
Use of talking therapies is driven partly by need –
but there are important other influences too
Income, need and service use
16
48
31
50
17
6
20
17
38
18
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Serious mental healthproblem ever
Low est WEMWBSgroup
Use of prescriptionmedication ever
Use of any formalsupport ever
Use of talk-basedformal support ever
Low est income quartileHighest income quartile
There is no obvious tension
between the formal and the informal
The formal versus the informal?
Those who use one are more likely to use the other 22% of those who have ever used formal support
talk to family or friends at least once a week, compared with 14% of those who have never used formal support
And both are predicted by a positive orientation towards emotions talk
In sum: no evidence of an antagonism between the two
But self-help strategies remain
relatively rare
Self-help: still thin culture?
Relatively little sign of a pervasive self-help culture 14% read self-help text in last year 4% been to a self-help/support group 5% used web-based groups or resources
Women slightly more likely than men to read/attend group; no diffs re web
Younger people much less likely to read/attend groups; much more likely to use web
Final thoughts
Some evidence of growing support for emotions talk in general – what opportunities does this present?
But significant continuing cultural resistance to ideas of professional support in face of private difficulties and entrenched differences by age group, education and gender
How to respond to the cultural distinctiveness of the ‘mustn’t grumble’ pre-war generation; and to the ageing of the ‘me generation’ Combination of lifestage and cohort effects
Importance of continuing to foster informal networks, as well as improving formal provision, and of finding ways for linking the formal and the informal
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