Abstract
Despite high prevalence of mental health problems among university students, there’s a gap between the need for help and the actual treatment received. This study investigated disclosure on distress and hazardous alcohol use and help-seeking behavior in a sample of 1,791 students of a Dutch university of applied sciences. Students’ perceived public and personal stigma, and attitudes towards disclosure and help-seeking were assessed as possible predictors of disclosure and help-seeking behavior. Results of the analysis of variance and logistic regression analysis indicated that perceived public and personal stigma did not predict disclosure and helpseeking behavior, but that attitudes towards disclosure and help-seeking did. Students with both distress and hazardous alcohol use have the least tendency to disclose their problems to family, friends or classmates, but at the same time they do tend to seek help. Disclosure and seeking help for mental health challenges are health promoting competencies that seem to need more attention in university students. Although further research needs to validate these findings, it is recommended to promote disclosure and help-seeking among students by investing in mental health literacy programs, to educate students about mental health issues, raise awareness on available mental health services and their potential benefits.
Highlights
University students are a vulnerable population with high risks for development of mental health problems and disorders [1]
Note that disclosure and help-seeking outcomes were only assessed among students who indicated that they suffered from psychosocial problems on a separate question in the survey, apart from the screeners for distress and alcohol use (n=708), because the precondition for disclosure of mental health problems and help-seeking behavior is that one is aware of and suffers from such problems
Psychosocial problems seem highly prevalent among students, there is little intention to disclose or seek help for dealing with these issues
Summary
University students are a vulnerable population with high risks for development of mental health problems and disorders [1]. They are in the midst of young adulthood, which is known to be a critical period in which 75% of mental health problems have their first onset before the age of 24 [2]. University may be an exciting period for some students, for others it is a difficult time. Burnout, loneliness, problematic alcohol use, illicit substance use, anxiety, depression and even suicidal ideation are some of the mental health issues that have been documented as highly prevalent in university students over the past years [1, 4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]. There is evidence that these mental health issues can have a serious impact on academic performance and may subsequently lead to academic delay and dropout [3,13]
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