Informal Help-seeking Research Articles

Predicting utilization of formal and informal help among general hospital inpatients with alcohol use disorders

The aim of this prospective study was to identify predictors of utilizing formal and informal help among currently non-help-seeking individuals with alcohol use disorders. Data was based on 197 general hospital inpatients with alcohol dependence or abuse. Using multivariable logistic regression analyses, intention to utilize formal help was tested in addition to evidence based predictors of utilization of help. Intention to seek help and prior help-seeking were identified as central predictors for formal and informal help-seeking. The lack of utilization of formal help among persons with alcohol use disorders may be reduced by focusing professional interventions on enhancing help-seeking motivation.

Help-Seeking for Stressful Events Among Chinese College Students in Taiwan: Roles of Gender, Prior History of Counseling, and Help-Seeking Attitudes

The present study examined the help-seeking behavior that Chinese college students used to cope with stressful events and the roles that gender, previous counseling experience, and help-seeking attitudes played in predicting informal and formal help-seeking behavior. Nine hundred ninety-five first-year Chinese college students at a private university in Taiwan completed the survey. The results revealed that most Chinese students sought help from informal helpers as compared to from professional helpers for academic/career, interpersonal, and personal/emotional problems. Logistic regression analyses revealed that although gender was significantly correlated with help-seeking attitudes, it was only predictive of informal help-seeking for interpersonal problems. Previous counseling experience was positively correlated with formal help-seeking regardless of the types of problems, whereas help-seeking attitudes were positively correlated with informal and formal help-seeking for personal/emotional problems.

The Relationship Between Self-injurious Behavior and Suicide in a Young Adult Population

To test the hypothesis that self-injurious behavior (SIB) signals an attempt to cope with psychological distress that may co-occur or lead to suicidal behaviors in individuals experiencing more duress than they can effectively mitigate. Analysis of a cross-sectional data set of college-age students. Two universities in the northeastern United States in the spring of 2005. A random sample of 8300 students was invited to participate in a Web-based survey; 3069 (37.0%) responded. Cases in which a majority of the responses were missing or in which SIB or suicide status was indeterminable were omitted, resulting in 2875 usable cases. Exposure Self-injurious behavior. Main outcome was suicidality; adjusted odds ratios (AORs) for suicidality by SIB status when demographic characteristics, history of trauma, distress, informal help-seeking, and attraction to life are considered. One quarter of the sample reported SIB, suicidality, or both; 40.3% of those reporting SIB also report suicidality. Self-injurious behavior status was predictive of suicidality when controlling for demographic variables (AOR, 6.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4.9-7.8). Addition of trauma and distress variables attenuated this relationship (AOR, 3.7; 95% CI, 2.7-4.9). Compared with respondents reporting only suicidality, those also reporting SIB were more likely to report suicide ideation (AOR, 2.8; 95% CI, 2.0-3.8), plan (AOR, 5.6; 95% CI, 3.9-7.9), gesture (AOR, 7.3; 95% CI, 3.4-15.8), and attempt (AOR, 9.6; 95% CI, 5.4-17.1). Lifetime SIB frequency exhibits a curvilinear relationship to suicidality. Since it is well established that SIB is not a suicidal gesture, many clinicians assume that suicide assessment is unnecessary. Our findings suggest that the presence of SIB should trigger suicide assessment.

Cultural Change and Chinese Immigrants' Distress and Help-Seeking in Hong Kong

The study examined, within a stress-coping paradigm, the contribution of acculturation, enculturation, and acculturative stress to distress and help-seeking among Mainland Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong. One hundred and thirty-one female immigrants were recruited from community service centers. Hierarchical regression results showed that general stress and acculturative stress were linked to distress. Social support did not play a buffering role on distress. Whereas length of residence and social support were strongly related to informal helpseeking, acculturation, along with age and social support, were related to professional help-seeking. Given the differential effects of various cultural change variables, the importance of independently assessing their influence on immigrant mental health and help-seeking is warranted.

An Exploration of Help-seeking Behaviours in Female Hispanic Adolescents

This study of 693 female adolescents, aged 12 to 20 years, describes the formal and informal helpseeking behaviors of Hispanic subjects, examines demographic and psychosocial correlates of those behaviors, and identifies differences in help-seeking behaviors between female Hispanic and adolescents o

AA and other helpseeking for alcohol problems: former drinkers in the U.S. general population.

Former drinkers comprise 18.5% of the adult U.S. population. However, no epidemiologic data has been published on the histories of seeking help for alcohol problems from Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or professional or informal sources of help. Using a sample of 8,057 former drinkers surveyed in the 1988 National Health Interview Survey, prevalence and characteristics associated with histories of such helpseeking were investigated. About 7% of the former drinkers had gone to AA or sought other types of help. Characteristics associated with such helpseeking were a diagnosis of DSM-IV alcohol dependence or abuse, a sense of compulsion to drink, social pressure to cut down, and highest ever alcohol consumption. The effects of alcohol consumption were stronger among younger respondents than older ones for professional or informal helpseeking.

Loneliness and Interpersonal Trust

Three studies were undertaken to investigate the relation between loneliness ant interpersonal trust. Study 1 revealed that college students' loneliness was negatively correlated with trust beliefs on Rotter's Interpersonal Trust scale. Also, students who scored low on loneliness displayed an increase in trusting behavior across reciprocated trials in a Prisoner's Dilemma game whereas students scoring high in loneliness did not display a similar increase in trusting behavior. Study 2 revealed that students' loneliness was negatively correlated with their: (a) emotional trust and reliability trust in close peers; (b) belief that they were trusted, in terms of disclosure receptivity and social responsibility, by their close peers; and (c) ratings of the trusting and quality of relationships with close peers

The predicament of the newly separated.

This study examines early adjustment to marital separation as a function of sex and parent status in a sample of 153 persons separated an average of eight weeks from their spouses because of marital discord. Men were much more satisfied with the quality of their marriages prior to separation and much more opposed to its ending than were women. Women consistently reported more gains than men as a consequence of their separations and a greater readiness to divorce. Social support systems were stronger in the case of women than men and in the case of parents than nonparents. Formal and informal helpseeking was very common. There was considerable difficulty in the areas of job performance and career planning, and the presence of children appeared to add to the difficulties faced by divorcing parents. In general, while the preseparation period appeared to be more stressful for women, the early postseparation period was far more difficult for men.