Help-Seeking Behaviour of University Students During Covid-19 Pandemic: Psychological Openness, Indifference to Stigma, Help-Seeking Propensity

Abstract

Since the pandemic outbreak, the Malaysian government has implemented Movement Control Order (MCO) in March 2020 to constrict the civilian's movements in an effort to contain the spread of the Corona Virus. Under the effect of MCO, individuals who were not working within the essential services were encouraged to remain stationary in their place of residence. Currently, multiple states in Malaysia are still under the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) effect. Therefore, most post-secondary students have not regained the complete freedom to move freely and were isolated in their respective campuses. This group of individuals have been separated from their friends and family for several months in a stretch, reducing their much-needed psychological support. During these trying times, online help-seeking becomes an essential outlet for people to cope with their daily struggles and issues. Although the Covid-19 counselling hotline was introduced to outreach the general populace, help-seeking rates remained low. This study addresses the gap mentioned above by assessing the relationships between help-seeking intention, psychological openness, indifferent to stigma, and help-seeking propensity. A correlational survey study was conducted across Malaysia. The participants are university students aged between 18 to 29 who were recruited using the purposive sampling method. A total of 303 respondents participated in this survey. 62.7% were females (n = 190), while the remaining 37.3% were males (n = 113). Surprisingly, findings revealed that help-seeking intention was negatively correlated with psychological openness and indifferent to stigma (perceived public stigma and self-stigma). However, the help-seeking intention was found to correlate positively with help-seeking propensity. Counsellors, mental health practitioners, helpline operators, and educators may utilize the exploratory data from this study to devise preventative measures in increasing the individuals' intention to seek help from professionals for their mental and psychological health. In addition, university students could be benefited by dispelling the stigma of receiving counselling and increasing their awareness in seeking help.

Predictors Associated With Mental Help Seeking Attitude Among Malaysian College Foundation Students in the Midst of Covid-19 Pandemic: a Cross Sectional Study

“…We found the mean score of MHSA among college foundation students, during the COVID-19 pandemic was 50.98, ± 0.39, which was lower compared to a similar study done among university students in Malaysia during the MCO by Lee et al (i.e. 54.4, ± 1.09) (32). This was caused by high psychological distress level during MCO that occurred due to strict physical restriction safety measures, while our study was conducted later and MCO was more relaxed.…”

“…In addition, vulnerable groups including young adults and adolescents often had a higher tendency of having a negative belief towards mental health ( 13) and a high level of self-stigma that would forbid them to seek professional help (33). With the recent pandemic that occurred, the strict physical restriction safety measures had cause these young adults to further not seeking help due to limited access towards the mental health service and lack of communication with university counsellors, peers and friends (32,34). As a result, they tend to seek help from the social networks, in which they perceived as very convenient for them (33).…”

“…A higher self-stigma often associated with poor knowledge and negative attitude towards mental health illness leading to poor mental help seeking (35). Several studies demonstrated that those who seek psychological help were scared and feared of being labelled as mentally ill by the community (32,34,35). Although, the level of stigma did not increase during Covid-19 pandemic, yet presence of self-stigma among adolescents de nitely interfered with tendency to seek professional help on any mental health concerns (36).…”