College students' help-seeking preferences.

Abstract

A sample of 136 undergraduate colleges students completed a questionnaire indicating the relative likelihood that they would turn to seven potential helpgivers with 11 personal or 5 career problems. For personal problems, the students indicated they would be more likely to turn to a close friend for help. For career problems, the students would be more likely to seek help from an academic adviser, instructor, close friend, or close relative. A total of 36% and 26% of the students said they would seek help from a professional counselor for a personal or career problem, respectively. The discussion focuses on (a) the extent to which these findings replicate previous research, (b) new insights obtained from this research, (c) possible explanations of these results suggested by the literature, and (d) implications for future research and practice.

How do attitudes toward mental health treatment vary by age, gender, and ethnicity/race in young adults?

“…Even when psychiatric need is present, the majority of young adults do not seek mental health treatment~Aalto-Setala, Marttunen, Tuulio-Henriksson, Poikolainen, & Lonnqvist, 2001;Kessler et al, 2001;Rimmer, Halikas, & Schuckit, 1982!. The factors affecting lower rates of help seeking in young adulthood are not well understood. Many researchers believe that at any age, negative attitudes toward mental health treatment are responsible for the underutilization of such services~Dubow et al Faberman, 1997;Tinsley, Brown, de St. Aubin, & Lucek, 1984;Tinsley, de St. Aubin, & Brown, 1982;Von Sydow & Reimer, 1998!. Models that explain or predict social behavior include attitudes toward health and attitudes toward help seeking as predictors of subsequent health-related behaviors~Armitage & Conner, 2001;Conner & Sparks, 1996;Jorm et al, 2000;Sutton, 1998!.…”

Choice of helpers, types of problems and sex of helpers of college students

“…Other studies attempted to relate help sources to specific personal and career problems (Cook et al, 1984;Tinsley, de St. Aubin and Brown, 1982). Several trends can be detected in studies which dealt with the selection of helpers for certain types of problems.…”

“…Friends or relatives were preferred as help sources for problems of beliefs, values, life changes, and career choice (Cook et al, 1984). For educationalvocational or career problems, college students ranked, as a help source, a faculty advisor first, a faculty member second, and a student friend third (Christensen and Magoon, 1974); for career problems, students were more likely to seek help from an academic advisor, instructor, close friend, or close relative (Tinsley, de St. Aubin and Brown, 1982). International students spending their first semester as freshmen in the USA tended to prefer faculty members and counselors more than friends as help sources for all kinds of problems (Leong and Sedlacek, 1986).…”

“…Several trends can be detected in studies which dealt with the selection of helpers for certain types of problems. For emotional or personal problems, college students selected friends and close friends as their first choice of the help sources (Christensen and Magoon, 1974;Tinsley, de St. Aubin and Brown, 1982). Friends or relatives were preferred as help sources for problems of beliefs, values, life changes, and career choice (Cook et al, 1984).…”

Psychosocial stressors and help-seeking behavior among undergraduate student teachers in Tanzania

“…However, only 187 (75%) students filled and returned the questionnaire, which were used for analysis. (Azen & Walker, 2011;Batten & Dutton, 2011;Hsu, 2005;Ang & Yeo, 2004;Tinsley, de St Aubin & Brown, 1982) was filled by 187 students. Given the nature of the research questions, the questionnaire was largely made up of categorical variables (Azen & Walker, 2011).…”