Predictors of Psychological Help Seeking Behaviours towards Mental Illness in University Students in Jordan vs UK

Abstract

The adverse effect of self-stigma on psychological help seeking behaviours in mental illness is well documented with factors such as gender and socio-economic status often determining whether or not help is sought. While self-stigma is a complex and multifaceted concept, understanding how it is predicted by factors including but not limited to culture, education, socio-economic background, and knowledge, is elemental in raising awareness and reducing its impact. We explored the influence of culture and educational background on knowledge and self-stigma towards mental illness in university students in the UK and in Jordan. Jordanian participants were expected to be less knowledgeable with higher self-stigma towards help seeking behaviours in mental illness than the UK participants. Surprisingly, contrary to the extant literature there were no significant effects for culture or for educational background on self-stigma towards mental illness nor on the amount of knowledge between the two samples. The implications of the pattern of results are promising as debated in the discussion.