Abstract
Background: There is a high prevalence of mental illness among healthcare students, and most students with mental health problems are reluctant to seek help from mental health professionals. Help-seeking is a component of mental health literacy (MHL). Although MHL is conceptualized as multi-dimensional, a theory-based multi-construct of MHL is still lacking. We aimed to build a theory-based multi-construct of MHL to explore the pathways of help-seeking. Methods: The data were obtained from a survey on MHL among healthcare students in 2018 (n = 1294). The Mental Health Literacy Scale for Healthcare Students was used to measure the maintenance of positive mental health, recognition of mental illness, mental illness stigma attitudes, help-seeking efficacy, and help-seeking attitudes. Descriptive analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted. Results: The findings of the SEM model indicated recognition of mental illness had a positive direct effect on both help-seeking efficacy and maintenance of positive mental health. Additionally, help-seeking efficacy fully mediated the relationship between recognition of mental illness and help-seeking attitudes. Conclusions: Help-seeking efficacy plays a significant role in healthcare students’ willingness to seek professional help when mental health care is needed. Accordingly, improving help-seeking efficacy strategies would increase the use of mental health services and contribute to the prevention of mental health problems.
Highlights
To understand the process of mental health help-seeking among healthcare students, we aimed to propose, build, and validate a theory-based construct of mental health literacy (MHL)
There was no significant difference in the scores of the five subscales of the Mental Health Literacy Scale for Healthcare Students (MHLS-HS)
The values of the five components of MHL met the criteria for skewness and kurtosis, indicating that the data satisfied the assumption of normal distribution
Summary
College students often find themselves suffering from mental health problems [1], with clinical phenotypes produced by stressful life events [2]. Individuals in this period are usually responsible for their own decisions for the first time; they are prone to mental health problems [3]. There is a high prevalence of mental illness among healthcare students, and most students with mental health problems are reluctant to seek help from mental health professionals. Help-seeking is a component of mental health literacy (MHL). We aimed to build a theory-based multi-construct of MHL to explore the pathways of help-seeking.
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