Exploring the role of mindfulness in psychological help-seeking among college students

Abstract

Mental health issues are common among college students, and research points to an increase in both prevalence and severity of psychopathology. Many students, particularly some students with severe symptoms, may not seek treatment, prompting researchers to explore psychological predictors of help-seeking attitudes and behaviors. The aim of the current two-part study was to explore the role of two psychological constructs, experiential avoidance and trait mindfulness, in students' help-seeking attitudes and behaviors among two samples of college students. Study 1 sought to explore the relationship between experiential avoidance, symptom severity, diagnostic history, and psychological help-seeking attitudes and behaviors among a large, national sample of college students (N = 46,673) who participated in the Healthy Minds Study. The results supported the hypothesized relationships between greater experiential avoidance and higher levels of symptom severity per measures of depression, anxiety, and suicidality. The results revealed that greater depression and suicidality were independently associated with less perceived helpfulness of treatment, and more current and past-year need for mental health treatment. In contrast with the hypothesis that greater experiential avoidance would be associated with less favorable help-seeking attitudes and less engagement with treatment, experiential avoidance was independently associated with more favorable help-seeking attitudes and more behavioral engagement in mental health treatment. However, results indicated that symptom severity mediated relationships between experiential avoidance and all measures of help-seeking attitudes. Study 2 sought to build upon this research through exploring the relationships between trait mindfulness, symptom severity, and psychological help-seeking among undergraduate students (N = 241) via cross-sectional data collection using an online survey. The results revealed that depression was independently associated with less favorable attitudes toward seeking mental health services, while anxiety was independently associated with greater intentions to seek counseling. Results indicated that trait mindfulness moderated the relationship between symptom severity and help-seeking attitudes, though the direction of the interaction varied across different measures of help-seeking attitudes. Findings offer partial support for the protective role of trait mindfulness, in that students reporting more symptoms of depression and higher levels of trait mindfulness also reported higher intentions to seek counseling. Future research should further explore the protective role of trait mindfulness in psychological help-seeking, particularly among students who may face increased risk of not seeking help, and intervention efforts should be developed to reach students and promote treatment seeking during this critical developmental period. --Author's abstract