Professional and Psychological Help Seeking Behavior among College Students

Abstract

Mental and behavioral problems are the leading causes of health problems in young people both in high and low resource countries, accounting for one third of all years lost productivity due to this disability. It implies that, healthy students can productively contribute to the development of a country.19 As India is the world’s most youthful nation college students seeking professional and psychological help for their mental health issues and becoming mentally healthy is essential for their successful college life. This study is conducted to understand the Professional Psychological Help Seeking Behavior of college students for their Mental health issues and to know the gender differences. Convenient sampling was used with 60 respondents from a reputed college of Mangaluru, Karnataka. Attitude towards professional psychological help seeking scale (Fischer, 1995) and Socio demographic profile were used for data collection. The study revealed poor attitude among college students for professional help seeking for mental health and recommends for an increased education and awareness to reduce the perceived stigma for help seeking. More defined policies and programmes have the potential to improve students’ access to a full range of mental health services which in turn contribute to overall development.