Help-seeking Experience Research Articles

Help seeking behaviour in college students with high help-seeking willingness

Objective:To explore the related factors of help-seeking behavior in counseling context,in order to promote the help-seeking behavior of college students who had recognition of their psychological distress and with willingness to seek help.Methods:From 4 universities fully equipped with mental health service,138 students who had demands and willingness to seek psychological help but did not have help-seeking behaviors were selected as the no help-seeking group,and 99 students who had help-seeking behaviors were selected as help-seeking group.They were assessed with the Self-Stigma of Seeking Help Scale(SSOSH),Disclosure Expectation Scale(DES),Self-Efficiency Questionnaire(revised),Perceived Causal Control of Mental Distress Questionnaire(PCCMDQ),and Indirect Help-Seeking Experiences Questionnaire(IHSEQ).Results:The scores of SSOSH,DES anticipated risk,and PCCMDQ were higher [(12.4±3.0) vs.(11.3±4.0),(12.9±3.0) vs.(11.0±3.4),(4.4±0.8) vs.(3.7±1.0);Ps0.05] and the scores of Self-Efficiency Questionnaire(revised),PCCMDQ and IHSEQ were lower [(27.7±4.2) vs.(30.0±4.0),(0.3±0.5) vs.(0.9±0.8);P0.001)] in the no help-seeking group than in the help-seeking group.Regression analysis showed that the scores of DES,Self-Efficiency Questionnaire,and IHSEQ entered the regression model of help-seeking behavior(Nagelkerke R2=0.478).Structural equation modeling analysis showed that self-efficiency and anticipated risk played a mediating role between indirect help-seeking experience and help-seeking behavior.The explainable variance of the model was 30.5%,and the indirect effect accounted for 10.4% of total effect.Conclusion:High willingness help-seeking behavior may be related to disclosure expectation risk,self-efficiency,control attribution and indirect help-seeking experience.

Asian International Students’ Willingness to Seek Counseling: A Mixed-Methods Study

Using a mixed-methods survey design that was predominantly quantitative, this study explored Asian international students’ willingness to seek counseling. Participants were 177 Asian international students recruited from a U.S. Midwestern University. After controlling for attitudes toward psychological help-seeking and past counseling experience, academic stress was significantly and positively related to willingness to seek counseling for academic problems. Qualitative data were also collected using one open-ended question in the survey: “What comes into your mind when you think about ‘counseling’ or ‘mental health counseling’?” The qualitative analyses revealed positive perceptions of counseling as well as a personal reluctance to seek counseling.

Pathways to Care and Help-Seeking Experience Prior to Self-Harm

Help-seeking behavior may protect people from harming themselves. However, few studies have discussed how and why people access lay or professional help prior to self-harm. This study explored the subjective experiences of individuals with deliberate self-harm in terms of help-seeking behavior and medical care pathways. Researchers performed qualitative in-depth interviews and content analysis and used a sampling grid to recruit participants. Twenty emergency attendees between the ages of 18-55 years were interviewed on their help-seeking pathways and experiences using a standardized topic guide. Participants identified friends, family members, healthcare personnel, and their own initiative as the primary medical care pathways. Analysis showed help-seeking experiences significantly related to the physician-patient relationship, social support, and treatment adherence. These factors were also identified as prominent themes related to medical help-seeking behavior. Supportive attitudes and continuous care from formal and informal sources of help may facilitate help-seeking behavior, whereas negative influences from close friends or relatives may trigger a self-harm episode. Medication stockpiling and the negative aspects of close relationships should be addressed and minimized to raise the effectiveness of self-harm or suicide prevention efforts.

Mental Health Stigma, Self-Concealment, and Help-Seeking Attitudes among Asian American and European American College Students with No Help-Seeking Experience

The present study examined whether mental health stigma (i.e., negative attitudes toward people with a psychological disorder) and self-concealment are unique predictors of help-seeking attitudes in Asian American and European American college students with no history of seeking professional psychological services. The Asian American group had less favorable help-seeking attitudes overall, lower levels of stigma tolerance and interpersonal openness, greater mental health stigma, and greater self-concealment than the European American group. Mental health stigma and self-concealment were unique predictors of help-seeking attitudes overall in both groups. However, mental health stigma was not a unique predictor of recognition of need for psychotherapeutic help and confidence in mental health practitioners, the components of help-seeking attitudes theorized to be most associated with actual help-seeking behavior. Self-concealment was a unique predictor of confidence in mental health practitioners in the Asian American group, but not in the European American group.

Psychological help-seeking: role of socio-demographic variables, previous help-seeking experience and presence of a problem

This study aimed at understanding the role of socio-demographic variables, previous experience of seeking professional help, and presence of a problem on the help-seeking attitudes of university students. Undergraduate students selected from a Turkish urban university completed The Attitudes toward Seeking Psychological Help-Shortened (Türküm, 2004), and a demographic information form. The Multivariate Analyses of Variances showed that gender, age, education level of parents, living arrangement, and presence of a problem were significantly associated with help-seeking attitudes.

Young people’s help-seeking for mental health problems

This paper summarises an ambitious research agenda aiming to uncover the factors that affect help-seeking among young people for mental health problems. The research set out to consider why young people, and particularly young males, do not seek help when they are in psychological distress or suicidal; how professional services be made more accessible and attractive to young people; the factors that inhibit and facilitate help-seeking; and how community gatekeepers can support young people to access services to help with personal and emotional problems. A range of studies was undertaken in New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Data from a total of 2721 young people aged 14-24 years were gathered, as well as information from some of the community gatekeepers to young people’s mental health care. Help-seeking was measured in all the studies using the General Help Seeking Questionnaire (Wilson, Deane, Ciarrochi & Rickwood, 2005), which measures future help-seeking intentions and, through supplementary questions, can also assess prior help-seeking experience. Many of the studies also measured recent help-seeking behaviour using the Actual Help Seeking Questionnaire. The types of mental health problems examined varied across the studies and included depressive symptoms, personal-emotional problems, and suicidal thoughts. The help-seeking process was conceptualised using a framework developed during the research program. This framework maintains that help-seeking is a process of translating the very personal domain of psychological distress to the interpersonal domain of seeking help. Factors that were expected to facilitate or inhibit this translation process were investigated. These included factors that determine awareness of the personal domain of psychological distress and that affect the ability to articulate or express this personal domain to others, as well as willingness to disclose mental health issues to other people. The results are reported in terms of: patterns of help-seeking across adolescence and young adulthood; the relationship of help-seeking intentions to behaviour; barriers to seeking help—lack of emotional competence, the help-negation effect related to suicidal thoughts, negative attitudes and beliefs about helpseeking and fear of stigma; and facilitators of seeking help—emotional competence, positive past experience, mental health literacy, and supportive social influences. The paper considers the implications of the findings for the development of interventions to encourage young people to seek help for their mental health problems, and concludes by identifying gaps in the help-seeking research and literature and suggesting future directions.

Suicidal ideation and help-negation: Not just hopelessness or prior help.

Few distressed young people seek professional psychological help and little is known about what sources of help young people seek for different problems. In suicidal youth, the process of help-negation may exacerbate poor help-seeking. Three hundred and two undergraduate university students completed a questionnaire measuring suicidal ideation, hopelessness, prior help-seeking experience, and help-seeking intentions. Participants indicated they would seek help from different sources of help for different types of problems, but friends consistently were rated as the most likely source of help. Help-negation was suggested by higher levels of suicidal ideation being associated with lower help-seeking intentions. However, the negative suicidal ideation/help-seeking-intentions relationship was not explained by hopelessness or prior help-seeking. Help-negation appears to involve more than just negative expectations regarding the future. The discussion proposes social problem-solving orientation as one of a number of potential explanatory variables.

Emotional competence and willingness to seek help from professional and nonprofessional sources

We sought to determine the relationship between emotional competence and willingness to seek help for emotional problems and suicidal ideation. A survey of 300 university undergraduates assessed emotional competence (skill at emotion perception, managing self-relevant emotions, and managing others' emotions), hopelessness, willingness to seek help from health professionals (e.g. counsellor) and nonprofessionals (friends, family), and perceived usefulness of past help-seeking experience. Those who reported feeling less skilled at managing emotions were less willing to seek help from family and friends for both emotional problems and suicidal ideation and less willing to seek help from health professionals for suicidal ideation. These relationships held even after controlling for hopelessness, sex, and past help-seeking experience. Mediational analysis suggested that people low in managing others' emotions were less willing to seek help from professionals because they had had poorer experiences with mental health professionals in the past. There was no significant relationship between emotion perception skill and willingness to seek help. People most likely to be in need of help (those poor at managing emotions) were the least willing to seek it, and if they did seek it, were the least likely to benefit from it.

Emotional competence and willingness to seek help from professional and nonprofessional sources

We sought to determine the relationship between emotional competence and willingness to seek help for emotional problems and suicidal ideation. A survey of 300 university undergraduates assessed emotional competence (skill at emotion perception, managing self-relevant emotions, and managing others' emotions), hopelessness, willingness to seek help from health professionals (e.g. counsellor) and nonprofessionals (friends, family), and perceived usefulness of past help-seeking experience. Those who reported feeling less skilled at managing emotions were less willing to seek help from family and friends for both emotional problems and suicidal ideation and less willing to seek help from health professionals for suicidal ideation. These relationships held even after controlling for hopelessness, sex, and past help-seeking experience. Mediational analysis suggested that people low in managing others' emotions were less willing to seek help from professionals because they had had poorer experiences with mental ...

Parental Expectations of a Multi-Disciplinary Clinic for Children with Developmental Disabilities

Social scientists and health professionals have contended that consumer compliance with professional advice is related to thefulfillment of their expectations. The present study sought to begin empirical investigation of this hypothesis by identifying the content of parental expectations of a diagnostic clinicfor children so that in subsequent research these expectations could be related to the parents' subsequent attitudes and behavior. It was found that parents, regardless of socioeconomic status and ethnicity, lacked specific andfirmly-held expectations regarding the kinds of specialists, evaluations, and therapies they desired. Efforts then turned to isolating possible sources of this uncertainty, including exploration of parents' medical knowledge, perception of their role as health consumers, and the nature of their prior help-seeking experience. The issues and implications generated by these findings, particularly as they relate to the dynamics and outcomes of parent-professional interaction, are then discussed.