The Impact of Mens Sheds Program on the Social Connectedness of Men in the Society - Paper Example

The data from the study is similar to results conducted by other researchers on the topic.

The study could inform individuals as well as the society on the importance of Mens Sheds program in the community.

Methodological issue. The validity of the information collected was affected methodology used to collect the information. The choice of the sample population may have caused a variation in the results.

Future research is required to support the results of the current study on the impact of program on social relations of men in the society.

Based on the findings of the current study we recommend Mens Sheds program funding be expanded by the organization.

Discussion

The investigation sought to assess the impact of Mens Sheds program on the social connectedness of men in the society.

The results rejected the null hypothesis and supported the alternative hypothesis that stated that participants who spend a more significant number of hours at the Mens shed per week will have a higher level of SCS.

The results have extensively shown that participation in the Mens sheds positively impacts on the health of the participants. Also, social isolation is decreased for men who have mental health issues of depression (Ballinger et al., 2009).

Therefore, social isolation in men can be reduced by an increase in social activities as well as improved friendships.

These results are consisted with the previous findings of Moylan et al., (2015) who demonstrated that social connectedness was directly related to the number of hours older men spent out of the house.

Social Connectedness Scale (SCS) of 20-30 was shown for the 7.3 hours which was the average number of hours spent in the Mens Shed. High scores of 35-50 on the social connectedness scale were displayed for an average of 10-12 hours spent in the Mens shed weekly.

Regarding sustainability thinking, at an individual level, the study could inform men who are experiencing social isolation on the importance of Mens Sheds. Also, the research could inform the community of the significance of the Mens Shed thus encouraging more men to join the program. This, in turn, will lead to a decrease in mens social isolation as well as improved mental health (Moore, 2017).

The study was limited in some methodological issues; first, the differences between the study population of 30 participants and the real-world population may cause a variation in the results of the study (Frankfort et al.., 2007). Secondly, men are not comfortable in talking about their challenges and an emotion thus choosing the population sample may have lead to participants providing invalid information in the study, this would; in turn corrupt the data and eventually the results. Lastly, sourcing participants from different men sheds from different cities would have improved the studys external validity, allowing more significant generalization of the results to occur.

Finally, we can reject null hypothesis and accept alternative hypothesis. This is because the significance level is below the cut-off value (as our statistical analysis shows) we have set (e.g., either 0.05 or 0.01), we reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis.

. Future research could study the impact of the Mens shade program on mens cultural norms, values and agency traits about health and wellbeing of the older men in the community. This will help support the current findings on the impact of Mens shade program on social relations of men in the society.

. The results from the present study have shown that there is a high positive correlation between the number of hours and social connectedness scale. This indicates that participation in the Mens shed program activities has a positive impact on the health and wellbeing benefits on the participants. Based on the pilot program we recommend that the organization expand funding for the development of Mens Shed program in the region.

References

Moylan, M. M., Carey, L. B., Blackburn, R., Hayes, R., & Robinson, P. (2015). The Mens Shed: Providing biopsychosocial and spiritual support. Journal of religion and health, 54(1), 221-234.

Frankfort-Nachmias, C., & Nachmias, D. (2007). Study guide for research methods in the social sciences. Macmillan.

Ballinger, M. L., Talbot, L. A., & Verrinder, G. K. (2009). More than a place to do woodwork: a case study of a community-based Men's Shed. Journal of Men's Health, 6(1), 20-27.

Moore, E. (2017). Exploring older males perceptions of help seeking in relation to mental health and depression.