Help-Seeking among Irish adolescents: Where Would they Turn?

Abstract

This study set out to identify the sources of help Irish adolescents would be willing to access when distressed, and to investigate associations between participants' willingness to seek help and their emotional and behavioural difficulties. The participants were 1079 thirteenfifteen year old secondary school students. They completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997) and a specially designed measure assessing likelihood of seeking help from various sources, as part of the baseline assessment in an on-going evaluation of a school-based mental health promotion initiative. Results show that participants are most willing to seek help from informal sources when distressed, and males are significantly more likely than females to report that they would not seek help from any source. Greater reluctance to seek help is associated with increased difficulties for both males and females. Possible barriers to help seeking by adolescents are discussed.