Overall Life Satisfaction and Help‐Seeking Attitudes of Turkish College Students in the United States: Implications for College Counselors

Abstract

This study examined the effects of acculturation, beliefs about mental illness, and selected demographic variables on the help-seeking attitudes of IZOTurkish students who were attending college in the United States.The authors maintain that if mental health professionals increase their understanding of Turkish international students, they can then develop more effective services for this population.nternational students attend more than 2,500 U.S. institutions of higher education, and there are more international students enrolled annually in

Help-Seeking Attitudes of University Students: The Role of Personality Traits and Demographic Factors

“…In contrast to previous investigations (Chang, 2008;Kilinc & Granello, 2003;Masuda et al, 2005), the current study demonstrated that previous counseling or therapy experiences did not contribute to the help-seeking attitudes of students. It was expected that the students with past counseling or therapy experiences would hold more positive help-seeking attitudes than those who had never received counseling or therapy.…”

“…McGrath (1995) reported that most college students ( N = 113) preferred sharing their non-academic concerns with close friends rather than counseling professionals. Similarly, other studies found that students mostly preferred to discuss their psychological problems with their friends (Kilinc & Granello, 2003;Oliver, Reed, Katz, & Haugh, 1999). In this study, the aim was to explore the students' initial preferences for help sources.…”

“…South African Journal of Psychology,Volume 41(3), September 201 I seling or therapy experiences (Kilinc & Granello, 2003;Turkum, 2005). In this study, it was expected that the students who had counseling or therapy experiences would have more positive attitudes toward help-seeking than those who did not, as suggested by the literature mentioned above.…”

A review of the acculturation experiences of international students

“…Russell, Thomson, and Rosenthal (2008) conducted a large study investigating the use of health and counselling services by 979 international students at an Australian university. Overall, the international students rated the services positively, which is in contrast to prior research (e.g., Kilinc & Granello, 2003; W. M. L. Lee & Mixson, 1995;N. Zhang & Dixon, 2003).…”

“…Despite the important role that host acculturation attitudes (and macro level factors impacting on these attitudes) play in these models, there is an absence of studies examining these attitudes and factors with reference to international students. A handful of studies (see Cemalcilar, 2008;Cemalcilar, Falbo, & Stapleton, 2005;Kagan & Cohen, 1990;Kilinc & Granello, 2003;Wang & Mallinckrodt, 2006) have investigated the influence of international students' acculturation attitudes on their adaptation, but as the IAM, CMA, and RAEM outline, the migrant's acculturation attitudes interact with the host acculturation attitudes, with discrepancies likely to impact negatively on adaptation.…”