Professional Help-Seeking Attitudes Among College Students: The Role of ACEs, Resilience, and Mental Health

Abstract

ABSTRACT Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are associated with poorer physical and mental health outcomes, which have been shown to negatively impact resilience. The prevalence of mental health diagnoses among college students is increasing in frequency and severity. Further, research shows that college students often have unmet mental health needs and underutilize professional help for mental health disorders. The purpose of this study was to better understand the relationship between ACES, resilience, mental health diagnosis, mental health treatment, and attitudes toward help-seeking. Specifically, we wanted to understand what contributes to college students seeking professional help. Nine hundred and forty-one college students from a large Southwest university completed a series of measures via a Qualtrics link. There was a significant relationship between ACE scores and previous/current mental health diagnosis (p = .001) and between ACE scores and previous/current psychological treatment (p = .001). When considering all factors together, a four-way ANOVA indicated the overall model was significant, but only current/recent mental health treatment had a significant effect on attitude toward seeking professional help (p=.001). ACEs, resiliency, and mental health diagnosis did not impact attitudes toward seeking help. This study adds to the growing body of literature on understanding what contributes to college students seeking help.