Masculinity and Mental Health in Later Life in Sub‐Saharan Africa
A Review of Recent Literature
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12911990 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sunkanmi Folorunsho (0000-0002-5471-7125, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 12 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociology Compass (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1751-9020 • E-ISSN: 1751-9020 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/soc4.70148 |
| OpenAlex | W4417280916 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 54 |
Research on aging and mental health in Sub‐Saharan Africa has expanded in recent years, yet scholarship continues to overlook the experiences of older men despite major demographic and social change across the region. In this review, I synthesize conceptual and empirical studies published between 2000 and 2025 on masculinity, aging, and mental health, drawing on searches conducted in Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and African Journals Online. I include studies that examine older men, mental health outcomes, and gendered dimensions of aging across diverse SSA contexts. To guide the analysis, I apply five key frameworks from the literature: hegemonic masculinity, gender performance, intersectionality, structural vulnerability, and life course and stress process perspectives. These frameworks allow me to show how masculinities in later life are shaped by economic precarity, bodily change, shifting kinship expectations, social isolation, and culturally embedded idioms of distress and help‐seeking. I identify persistent gaps in the evidence, including urban and clinic sampling biases, limited age and gender disaggregation, reliance on Western mental health constructs, and the scarcity of longitudinal or mixed‐methods research. I conclude by calling for culturally grounded, gender‐responsive approaches that can inform more inclusive mental health policies and interventions for aging men in SSA
Effect of a Primary Care–Based Psychological Intervention on Symptoms of Common Mental Disorders in Zimbabwe
Structural Vulnerability
Familial Roles and Social Transformations
What about older men? Towards a critical interrogation of conceptions of masculinities in northwestern Ghana
A Scoping Review of Masculinity Norms and Their Interplay With Loneliness and Social Connectedness Among Men in Western Societies
Health determinants on healthy ageing in sub-Saharan Africa
Getting Old Well in Sub Saharan Africa
Masculinity and male sexual behaviour in Mozambique
Being tough, being healthy
Characteristics of Elderly Suicides in Ghana
Social Isolation, Depression, and Psychological Distress Among Older Adults
Decline in Material Family Support for Older People in Urban Ghana, Africa
Negotiating patriarchy? Exploring the ambiguities of the narratives on “male champions” of gender equality in Uganda Parliament
Gender, aging, poverty and health
The interaction of masculinity and control and its impact on the experience of suffering for an older man
Respect and reciprocity
Mapping the Margins
Time, Human Agency, and Social Change
Better dead than dishonored
Shards of sorrow
Men's psychiatric distress in context
From Wisdom to Witchcraft
The Stress Process
Later-Life Masculinities
The Social Construction of Illness
Staying a 'Real Man
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |