Although a quarter of adolescents are likely to experience emotional and psychological difficulties, only a third of them will seek professional help. In this exploratory study we undertook focus groups with 54 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 16 in eight postprimary schools in Northern Ireland. Young people do not trust their GPs, perceiving them as strangers, impersonal and uncaring. The basis of distrust is different among males and females. The findings are discussed in light of adolescents' developmental challenges of identity formation and the consequent demand to be respected and taken seriously by adults.
Despite increasing numbers of adolescents experiencing poor mental wellbeing, adolescents are often reluctant to seek help for mental health problems. In response, there is increasing interest in the development of evidence-based interventions to increase help-seeking behavior. However, the evidence base may lack validity if help-seeking measures used in adolescent research contain age-inappropriate language or content such as seeking help from a spouse; no previous review has assessed this. A review of adolescent mental health help-seeking research was conducted to identify help-seeking measures used, assess their psychometric properties and linguistic appropriateness in adolescent populations, and organize measures by facet of help-seeking for ease of future use. We found 14 help-seeking measures used in adolescent research, but only 17/72 (24%) studies found used one of the identified measures. Help-seeking measures identified were categorized into one of four help-seeking facets: attitudes toward help-seeking, intentions to seek help, treatment fears regarding help-seeking, and barriers to help-seeking. The content and language of measures were deemed appropriate for all but one help-seeking measure. Recommendations for future research include greater utilization of identified measures, particularly in researching help-seeking behavior in different cultures, subcultures and between stages of adolescence.
While the beneficial effects on mental health of spirituality and creativity as separate entities have been well documented, little attention has been given to the interactive effect of the two constructs in coping. Recently, the theory of transformative coping and associated Transformative Coping Model have been developed and examined from both theoretical and quantitative perspectives. To extend this work, the present study critically examined the theory of transformative coping and associated Transformative Coping Model from a qualitative perspective. Ten interviews were conducted among Northern Irish and Irish artists, contemplative prayer group members, and mental health service users. Data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The results showed that the majority of participants had experienced stress and trauma, and have suffered mental ill-health as a consequence. Most defined themselves as both creative and spiritual, and resorted to a spiritual attitude along with creative expression in order to cope with traumatic events and ongoing stressful situations. Most participants believed that their creativity was rooted in their spirituality and that the application of both helped them to transform negative emotional states into positive ones. This, in turn, gave them increased resilience to and a different perspective of stressful events, which aided and improved their coping skills throughout the lifespan.
OPEN ACCESSReligions 2015, 6 500
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