Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help: Factor Structure and Socio-Demographic Predictors

Abstract

Attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help (ATSPPH) are complex. Help seeking preferences are influenced by various attitudinal and socio-demographic factors and can often result in unmet needs, treatment gaps, and delays in help-seeking. The aims of the current study were to explore the factor structure of the ATSPPH short form (-SF) scale and determine whether any significant socio-demographic differences exist in terms of help-seeking attitudes. Data were extracted from a population-based survey conducted among Singapore residents aged 18–65 years. Respondents provided socio-demographic information and were administered the ATSPPH-SF. Weighted mean and standard error of the mean were calculated for continuous variables, and frequencies and percentages for categorical variables. Confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory factor analysis were performed to establish the validity of the factor structure of the ATSPPH-SF scale. Multivariable linear regressions were conducted to examine predictors of each of the ATSPPH-SF factors. The factor analysis revealed that the ATSPPH-SF formed three distinct dimensions: “Openness to seeking professional help,” “Value in seeking professional help,” and “Preference to cope on one's own.” Multiple linear regression analyses showed that age, ethnicity, marital status, education, and income were significantly associated with the ATSPPH-SF factors. Population subgroups that were less open to or saw less value in seeking psychological help should be targeted via culturally appropriate education campaigns and tailored and supportive interventions.

Knowledge and Awareness Regarding Mental Health and Barriers to Seeking Psychiatric Consultation in Saudi Arabia

“…Similar to our finding that older persons were more willing to seek psychiatric help, a study from Ethiopia 18 showed that individuals aged 31-40 were about 10 times more likely to seek treatment than subjects under 20 years, which may be explained by the fact that older adults tend to have more knowledge about mental illness. However, a survey conducted in Singapore, reported that younger age was significantly associated with willingness to seek professional help 19 . There is still no conclusive evidence on the association between age and seeking psychological help.…”

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“…Minor changes were made to the questions based on the cognitive interview findings; this was to ensure the items of the instrument would be understood in the manner they were intended to be and to avoid potential misinterpretation. More information on this process is available in a previous publication [25]. …”

“…However, the model fit indices suggested that these two models didn’t fit into our data. Therefore, following previous studies [13, 25], we randomly split the weighted dataset into 2 separate parts with equal number of observations for each (n = 1,503). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted for the first half-dataset.…”

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