Parental Influences on University Students’ Mental Help‐Seeking Intentions

Abstract

Parents are thought to play an integral role in adolescents’ and young adults’ help‐seeking, yet parental influences on university students’ help‐seeking intentions have been largely overlooked. A total of 118 parent‐student dyads completed questionnaires. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that increased student attachment to parent and lower levels of student distress were associated with informal help‐seeking. Actor‐partner interdependence models demonstrated that parent variables had no influence on students’ help‐seeking intentions. Counseling and research implications are discussed.

Self-compassion promotes mental help-seeking in older, not in younger, counselors

“…For instance, mental health literacy and previous history of help-seeking were found to facilitate greater mental help-seeking among Asian Americans (Cheng et al, 2018 ). Moreover, current experience of psychological distress also motivates help-seeking among Asian Americans (Cheng et al, 2018 ) and Canadian and American university students (Digal & Gagnon, 2020 ; Ward-Ciesielski et al, 2019 ). On the other hand, recent research documented several factors that could hinder people t o seek help from mental health professionals including self-stigma (Cheng et al, 2018 ; Topkaya et al, 2017 ; Yee et al, 2020 ), public stigma, social network stigma (Topkaya et al, 2017 ), preference for self-reliance and low perceived need for care (Clement et al, 2015 ; Gulliver et al, 2010 ; Mojtabai et al, 2011 ), masculine norms and restricted emotionality common among males (Judd et al, 2008 ).…”