Emotional competence and willingness to seek help from professional and nonprofessional sources

Abstract

We sought to determine the relationship between emotional competence and willingnes seek help for emotional problems and suicidal ideation. A survey of 300 university undergraduate assessed emotional competence (skill at emotion perception, managing self-relevant emotions, a managing others' emotions), hopelessness, willingness to seek help from health professionals (e counsellor) and nonprofessionals (friends, family), and perceived usefulness of past help-seeking experience. Those who reported feeling less skilled at managing emotions were less willing to see from family and friends for both emotional problems and suicidal ideation and less willing to seek h from health professionals for suicidal ideation. These relationships held even after controlling for hopelessness, sex, and past help-seeking experience. Mediational analysis suggested that peop managing others' emotions were less willing to seek help from professionals because they had ha experiences with mental health professionals in the past. There was no significant relationship be emotion perception skill and willingness to seek help. People most likely to be in need of help (thos at managing emotions) were the least willing to seek it, and if they did seek it, were the least likely t benefit from it.

The Role of Outcome Expectations and Attitudes on Decisions to Seek Professional Help.

“…Komiya et al (2000) also found that reluctance to seek psychological services was greater for those less open to their emotions. Similarly, those less skilled at dealing with emotions have also been found to be less likely to seek help, in general, as well as less likely to seek help from a mental health professional for concerns about suicide (Ciarrochi & Deane, 2001). Therefore, those who have experienced a distressing event should be most likely to report concerns about self-disclosing emotional issues to a counselor.…”

Counseling: A Misunderstood Profession

“…Clearly, treatment fears are an important avoidance factor, but more information is needed about their role relative to other factors. Persons who were less skilled at dealing with emotions have also been found to be less likely toseek help, in general, as well as less likely to seek help from a mental health professional for concerns about suicide (Ciarrochi& Deane, 2001). Vogel and Wester (2003) found that expectations of having to express emotions to a therapist affected individuals' help-seeking attitudes and intentions.…”

Concepts of multifaceted social support in operational work in the lives of South African Police Service members

“…Finfgeld-Connett (2005) adds factors such as common demographic and sociocultural aspects. Therefore, examples of sources of support are spouses, other family members, colleagues, supervisors, friends, peers, neighbours, church members, support groups, health care professionals, teachers and acquaintances (Ciarrochi & Deane, 2001;Finfgeld-Connett, 2005;Patterson, 2003). Finfgeld-Connett (2005) and Ciarrochi and Deane (2001) draw a distinction between professional and nonprofessional social support.…”