The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of the relationship that attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help have with religiosity and religious orientation among members of the Greek Orthodox Church in the United States.In addition, this study also investigated the nature of the relationship that confessional involvement has with: religious orientation, religiosity, attitudes toward seeking help, and ethnic background. This is important because Greek Americans, for reasons perhaps related to culture and religion, have historically displayed a reticence to seek professional psychological help when there are psychological problems. There is a paucity of research on the role religiosity and religious orientation has on seeking professional help for mental health problems. Members of a large-sized, urban, Greek Orthodox parish completed a questionnaire consisting of the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help scale, short form-revised (Fischer & Farina, 1995); the New Indices of Religious Orientation scale, short form (Francis, 2007); and the Christian Orthodox Religiousness Scale, (Chliaoutakis et al., 2002). The results indicated a strong, positive relationship between intrinsic religious orientation and religiosity; a weak, negative relationship between extrinsic religious orientation and religiosity; and no evidence of a relationship between the variables of religious orientation, religiosity and attitudes toward seeking help. Those intrinsic in religious orientation have a higher confessional involvement. No evidence of a relationship between attitudes toward seeking help and confessional involvement. A difference existed between Greek and non-Greek participants and Greek respondents had more positive attitudes toward seeking help with a reduced level of participation in confession. Limitations of this study include a small return rate and a narrow, demographic range of participants. The implications of the findings of this study were discussed and suggestions for future research were made. Abstract Approved: ____________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________
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