Understanding the intention and behavior of psychological help-seeking among Chinese college students using theory of planned behavior: a three-month follow-up study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Underutilization of mental health services is common and associated with substantial suffering, mental disorders and death. The present study aimed to explore factors significantly affecting the professional psychological help-seeking behavior based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). A sample of 597 Chinese college students recruited online completed the questionnaires, which measured four constructs of TPB including help-seeking intention, attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control in December 2020. Help-seeking behaviors were evaluated three months later in March 2021. A two-step structural equation modeling procedure was used to test the TPB model. Findings show that partially consistent with TPB, more positive attitudes about seeking professional help (Β = .258, p = .001) and higher perceived behavioral control (Β = .504, p < .001) directly predicted higher intention to seek mental health services, and perceived behavioral control (Β = .230, p = .006) directly predicted help-seeking behavior. However, behavioral intention (Β = −.017, p = .830) did not statistically significantly predict help-seeking behavior, while subjective norm (Β = .047, p = .356) did not predict help-seeking intention as well. The model accounted for 49.9% of the variance modeling help-seeking intention and 12.4% of the variance modeling help-seeking behavior. The results revealed the importance of attitude and perceived behavioral control in predicting help-seeking intention and behavior among Chinese college students and indicated that there existed a gap between intention and actual help-seeking behavior.