The Young Black Men, Masculinities, and Mental Health (YBMen) project is a Facebook-based intervention that provides mental health education and social support to young Black men. The YBMen project was created to better understand and address the pressures and needs of young Black men, particularly with regard to issues related to their conceptualization of masculinity and mental health. Black men from a 2-year liberal arts college in the Midwest (United States) enrolled in the YBMen pilot project. The purpose of this study is to report what participants in the YBMen pilot project liked and disliked about the intervention, along with their suggestions for improvement. Qualitative results from the 8 Black men who actively participated in the YBMen Facebook intervention and completed the postintervention interview are reported. A systematic analysis identified 9 subthemes that described participants' reactions to different components and characteristics of the Facebook intervention. Results indicated that opportunities for relationship building and connectivity, coupled with engaging popular culture references used in the intervention encouraged young Black men to actively participate in the YBMen Facebook intervention. The YBMen project has potential to improve the health and well-being of young Black men by providing nontraditional resources that are easily accessible, culturally sensitive, and gender-specific. Implications of the YBMen project as an effective Internet-based program that promotes mental health and increases social support among young Black men are discussed.

Research on coping mechanisms among Black Americans is robust, yet there is a dearth of studies that use qualitative approaches to examine coping specifically among young Black men. The current and historical landscape of race relations in the United States calls for additional concern and exploration of this topic. To fill gaps in this area, this study uncovered the ways Black college men cope with various stressors that impact their mental health. Eleven qualitative interviews were conducted with 18- to 25-year-old Black men enrolled at a college in the Midwest who participated in the Young Black Men, Masculinities, and Mental Health (YBMen) project. Data were analyzed using a rigorous and accelerated data reduction technique that involved transferring transcript data onto spreadsheets, reducing the data, and conducting a rigorous content analysis to generate themes and subthemes. Participants reported that Black college men cope with stress by discussing their issues with members of their social support networks, engaging in physical activities, and relying on themselves. Some respondents reported that they intentionally avoided dealing with their mental health, whereas others attempted to make sense of their problems. Substance use, violence, and anger were all identified as markers of unaddressed stressors. Stigma emerged as a barrier to seeking help. Study findings highlight within-group differences among Black college men. Mental health researchers must continue to develop creative ways to examine stress and coping so that resources can become more culturally relevant and readily available both within and outside of the spaces Black men occupy. (PsycINFO Database Record

The present study explores the construction of masculinity among young Black men. Of central concern is young Black men's subjective reflections on the role that popular culture and media have in informing how they understand and define their ideas of masculinity. The study uses interview data from a larger pilot study, the Young Black Men, Masculinities, and Mental Health Project, where participants sought to elucidate perceptions of the intersections between manhood and mental health. Study participants included 18-to 26-year-old Black men (n ϭ 11) enrolled at a university in the Midwest. When asked to describe and identify their definitions of manhood, participants referred to well-known male media figures of the past and present, and specifically identified various social movement leaders, athletes, and entertainers who were central to their conceptualization of manhood. Moreover, men identified both positive and negative qualities of these popular figures to determine aspects they either aspired to adopt or reject when forming their own ideas about manhood. Study findings show that popular culture figures play complex roles in Black men's constructions of masculinity while uncovering that Black men use the images of these figures to deconstruct harmful, antiquated stereotypes and tropes associated with Black masculinity. Popular culture figures are also used to highlight and grapple with complex messages about the disposability of Black men's lives.

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