“We're opening 20 doors!“: Exploring the collective dimensions of Shared Reading as mental health promotion among newly retired men in Denmark

Retirement is a significant life transition, bringing with it structural and social alterations in everyday life. For older men, work life is an important source of identity and meaning, and retirement may therefore lead to diminished well-being due to loss of occupational attachments. This calls for a need to address men's life transitions in health-promoting interventions and to explore how to introduce positive changes in retired men's mental health. Studies have investigated mental health effects of Shared Reading (SR) with promising results, but the impact of a collective reading experience on the positive mental health of male retirees has not been investigated. This study explores the mental health-promoting potential of SR among newly retired men in Denmark through an investigation of collective dimensions of the SR experience. The study identified three central collective dimensions of the SR experience: awareness and presence, sense-making, and social connectivity. Through these dimensions, SR provides a space for 1) affective, existential, and social stimulation; 2) shared reflection on both real and imagined past, present, and future lives; and 3) the (re)establishment or maintenance of senses of engagement, meaning, and community. On this basis, it is concluded that SR holds a potential to promote different aspects of positive mental health, i.e., affective well-being, meaning-making, and a sense of community for newly retired men.