Causal beliefs of mental illness and its impact on help-seeking attitudes: a cross-sectional study among university students in Singapore

Abstract

ObjectivesA considerable proportion of those who suffer from mental illnesses in Singapore do not seek any form of professional help. The reluctance to seek professional help could be due to misconceptions about the causes of mental illnesses. Research has shown that help-seeking attitudes can predict actual service use. As young adults are most at risk of developing mental illnesses, this study aims to elucidate the impact of causal beliefs about mental illness on help-seeking attitudes among university students in Singapore.DesignPrior to attending an anti-stigma intervention, data on the Causal Beliefs about Mental Illness, Inventory of Attitudes towards Seeking Mental Health services and questions pertaining to sociodemographic background were collected from participants using a self-administered questionnaire. Multiple linear regressions were performed to examine the relationship between causal beliefs and help-seeking, as well as their sociodemographic correlates.SettingsA university in Singapore.Participants390 students who were studying in a University in Singapore.ResultsYounger age was associated with higher scores on psychosocial attribution, while prior social contact with individuals with mental illness was significantly associated with lower scores on personality attribution. With regard to help-seeking attitudes; being a male and personality attribution were significantly associated with lower scores on ‘Psychological Openness’ and ‘Indifference to Stigma’, while psychosocial attribution was significantly associated with higher scores on ‘Help-seeking Propensity’. Having prior social contact also predicted higher ‘Psychological Openness’, while being in Year 2 and 3 predicted lower scores on ’Indifference to Stigma’.ConclusionFindings from this study suggest that help-seeking attitudes might be influenced by causal beliefs, with personality attribution being the most impairing. Hence, to reduce the wide treatment gap in Singapore, anti-stigma interventions targeting young people could focus on addressing beliefs that attribute mental illness to the personality of the individual.

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

“…The same results also reported in the study conducted by Nam et al (2013), which indicated that college students with higher levels of self-stigma have less intention to seek help. According to research conducted by Tan et al (2020), students have low intention to seek help from professionals as they were afraid to be labelled by other people around them. In other words, self-stigma is negatively correlated with help-seeking intention.…”

The potential impact of an anti-stigma intervention on mental health help-seeking attitudes among university students

“…Presentation of the biopsychosocial etiology of depression may have contributed to improved help-seeking attitudes by shifting causal attributions of the illness [ 16 ]. Our earlier analysis showed that the tendency to attribute depression to an individual’s personality was associated with lower psychological openness and higher stigma [ 27 ]. Tan et al reasoned that associating depression with a “weak” character could result in self-blame and shame, thus deterring help-seeking.…”

“…In contrast, help-seeking propensity was linked to higher psychosocial attribution such as childhood maltreatment or trauma. Tan et al suggested that individuals who endorsed psychosocial attributions were less likely to assume self-blame for the condition and more likely to consider the need to seek help [ 27 ].…”

“…Data was collected as part of the Advancing Research Towards Eliminating Mental Illness Stigma (ARTEMIS) study, an interventional research project targeted at students from one of the 6 local publicly-funded autonomous universities, which is aimed at increasing knowledge about depression and improving attitudes towards mental illness and seeking professional help. The associations between this intervention and mental health literacy and stigma outcomes have been published [ 26 , 27 ]. A total of 390 university students from the local university were recruited for the study from October 2018 to April 2019.…”

Employer and Co-worker Perspectives on Hiring and Working with People with Mental Health Conditions

“…Another concern that appears persistently in stigma research in Singapore and emerges again in the workplace context in this study is the idea of "loss of face" (Tan et al, 2020a). "Face" represents one's social identity and standing in the social hierarchy in Chinese and other Asian cultures and is thus important to business relations (Dong & Lee, 2007;Tan et al, 2020a).…”