Abstract
The cultural construct ‘shame’ (sharam) is cited as an oppressive force that controls and perpetuates patriarchal structures within particular cultures. ‘Shame’ and the related construct ‘honour’ (izzat) are believed to be key instruments for the oppression of women. Research has suggested that shame prevents women from South Asian communities from help-seeking in relation to mental health difficulties. There is little research investigating the impact of shame on British born South Asian girls and its relationship to their help-seeking behaviour. This research investigated the discourses of South Asian girls in relation to the cultural construct ‘shame’, mental health, and the influence that these have on their help-seeking behaviour. The analysis showed that discourses are complex and contradictory. Thus, shame is constructed by the girls as regulatory, sexist and oppressive and at the same time as helpful and protective. Implications for educational practice and the work of educational psychologists are discussed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 343-361 |
| Journal | Educational Psychology in Practice |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 18 Jul 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 18 Jul 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:©, Association of Educational Psychologists.
Keywords
- educational psychology
- British born South Asian girls
- shame
- honour
- mental health
Access to Document
- HoweJ2021discourses
This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Educational Psychology in Practice. Maninder Sangar & Julia Howe (2021) How discourses of sharam (shame) and mental health influence the help-seeking behaviours of British born girls of South Asian heritage, Educational Psychology in Practice, DOI: 10.1080/02667363.2021.1951676. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.