Does self-help increase rates of help seeking for student mental health problems by minimizing stigma as a barrier?

Abstract

Offering self-help may increase rates of students receiving help for mental health problems, possibly by offering an alternative for students unwilling to seek in-person therapy due to stigma concerns.

Mental Health-Related Digital Use by University Students: A Systematic Review

“…All articles reported that the university period, in whatever country, is characterized by a high prevalence of mental health problems, ranging from mild (e.g., academic stress, loneliness, and sadness) to severe troubles (e.g., depression, anxiety). However, university students do not seek treatment for several reasons, including stigma, 31,32 cost and time constraints, 21,22 lack of familiarity or contact with the mental health system, 28 or lack of mental health literacy. 33 We identified two main typologies of students being mostly likely to use e-mental health: students curious or concerned about their symptoms and willing to acquire psychological skills and self-diagnosis competencies through online resources, 17,24,25,29,32,[34][35][36] and students suffering from a diagnosed mental health disorder and willing to monitor their psychological status or to access care.…”

“…33 We identified two main typologies of students being mostly likely to use e-mental health: students curious or concerned about their symptoms and willing to acquire psychological skills and self-diagnosis competencies through online resources, 17,24,25,29,32,[34][35][36] and students suffering from a diagnosed mental health disorder and willing to monitor their psychological status or to access care. 18,22,27,31 All other students not using e-mental health reported that they had no need to look for either mental health information or support online. 18,23,32 Mental health-related digital use was associated with the presence of mental health problems in some studies, 18,26,31,37 but not in others 17,24,29 providing mixing results.…”

“…18,22,27,31 All other students not using e-mental health reported that they had no need to look for either mental health information or support online. 18,23,32 Mental health-related digital use was associated with the presence of mental health problems in some studies, 18,26,31,37 but not in others 17,24,29 providing mixing results. Findings on the association between gender and emental health use were also unclear: gender differences were little for some authors, 29,38 but strong for others.…”

“…18,33,35,36 On average, 1 university student out of 10 had accessed at least once a mental health support platform or mobile application for support seeking. 17,31,34 Facebook was among the most preferred e-mental health resources for support seeking. Specifically, social media were ranked higher than online support groups or discussion boards.…”

Evaluating Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Self-Help Books for College Student Mental Health

“…One promising approach is to provide self-help resources that students can access on their own, privately, whenever is convenient. Such self-guided resources have been found to be effective for college students (Lattie et al, 2019) and to be of interest to students, including those who otherwise might not seek services (Levin, Krafft & Levin, 2018). Research in this area has primarily focused on web and mobile programs, which theoretically is highly scalable due to minimal cost per end user once the platform is developed.…”