Adolescents’ Individual Characteristics and Intentions to Seek Help from Types of Peers and Parents

Abstract

Adolescents’ relationships with friends and with parents provide them with access to potential sources of assistance when they are experiencing problems. However, we lack more nuanced information about the types of peers and parents they intend to approach and about the contributions their individual characteristics make to their plans. This study examined adolescents’ intentions to seek help for a personal/emotional problem from five types of peers and parents (female friend, male friend, romantic partner, mother, father) and evaluated the unique, common, and total contributions of youth’s individual characteristics (gender, adaptable temperament, negative affect, self-disclosure competence, and conformity to the emotional control, self-reliance, and nice in relationships gender norms) to their intentions. Participants were 358 Canadian adolescents (51% boys; Grades 9–12) who completed a survey at school. On average, adolescents reported moderate intentions to seek assistance from each type of peer and parent. Hierarchical regression and commonality analyses showed that adolescents’ gender, self-disclosure competence, and emotional control beliefs made the largest total contributions to help-seeking intentions for both types of friends; self-disclosure competence and emotional control and self-reliance beliefs were most salient for help-seeking intentions for a romantic partner; and self-reliance beliefs and negative affect were most salient for help-seeking intentions for each parent, with emotional control beliefs also contributing to help-seeking intentions for mother. These results highlight the need to include more precise terms for peers and parents in help-seeking models and in assessments of adolescents’ help-seeking intentions, and the benefit of examining the unique, common, and total contributions of adolescents’ individual characteristics to clarify their relevance to youth’s plans to seek help.