Intention to seek professional psychological help among college students in Turkey: influence of help-seeking attitudes

BMC Research Notes

Masamine Jimba²  Keiko Otsuka²  Junko Yasuoka²  Krishna C Poudel¹  Feyza Seyfi² 

[1]Department of Public Health, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 316 Arnold House, 715 North Pleasant St, Amherst, MA 01003-9304, USA

[2]Department of Community and Global Health, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

关键词: Turkey;    Mental health;    College students;    Help seeking;    Intention;    Attitudes;    Professional psychological help;   

Others  :  1140539
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-6-519

 received in 2013-01-14, accepted in 2013-11-28,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Depression rates are high among college students in Turkey, but often students do not seek mental health care. This study aimed to examine the association between attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help and intention to seek professional psychological help among such college students. We also examined the factors associated with students’ professional psychological help-seeking attitudes. We conducted this cross-sectional study among 456 conveniently sampled graduate and undergraduate students in Ankara. We collected students’ data using self-administered, structured questionnaires in the Turkish language and then analyzed the data using both descriptive and multivariate methods.

Results

In the multiple linear regression analyses, students’ attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help were positively associated with intention to seek such help (p < 0.001). Other factors positively associated with students’ attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help included the following: age (p < 0.001), perceived social support from family (p < 0.05), perceived social support from friends (p < 0.01), and perceived social support from significant other (p < 0.05). Students with less positive attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help were more likely to be men (p < 0.001), undergraduate students (p < 0.001), and students who were not aware of the presence of the on-campus counseling center (p < 0.01).

Conclusions

Students’ positive attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help were positively associated with their intentions to seek such help. To encourage utilization of the counseling center inside the campus more frequently when in need, interventions might be necessary to improve students’ attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help—in particular among young male students.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Seyfi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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