Help-Seeking Among Jamaican Adolescents

Abstract

Underutilization of mental health resources is a well-documented problem.Little is known about the help-seeking attitudes of Jamaican adolescents. The aim of this study was to examine predictors of psychological help-seeking attitudes among Jamaican adolescents (N = 339). The individual determinants of health service utilization model suggests that several factors contribute to health care attitudes and utilization, including illness factors (beliefs about etiology of mental health issues and level of somatization), predisposing factors (gender, age, and opinions about mental illness), and enabling factors (socioeconomic status and geographical location). Data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression. Results indicated that for this population, predisposing factors predict attitudes toward seeking professional mental health care. Specifically, increased age, decreased authoritarian beliefs, and increased benevolence predicted more positive attitudes toward seeking psychological help. After controlling for gender, these predisposing factors accounted for 14.6% of the variance. Interestingly, neither illness factors nor enabling factors predicted help-seeking attitudes. Practical implications for public health policy, education, and stigma reduction programs are discussed.

Mental health literacy in children and adolescents in low- and middle-income countries: a mixed studies systematic review and narrative synthesis

“…Evidence of both strong and weak quality contributed to this finding. Interestingly, there was some consensus that females had more positive attitudes to help-seeking [ 72 , 73 , 80 , 81 ] and held less stigmatising attitudes than males [ 37 , 47 , 79 ] among mixed quality sources. Regarding depression, studies that did report this outcome, had mixed findings [ 54 , 61 ] while other studies provided weaker evidence of no such gender differences [ 34 , 38 ].…”

Impact of mental health stigma on help-seeking in the Caribbean: Systematic review

“…The number of participants ranged from three to 408 subjects. Two papers used data from the same study [ 23 , 24 ]. Studies were conducted in Jamaica (37.5%, n = 3), Trinidad (12.5%, n = 1), Haiti (12.5%, n = 1), Cuba (12.5%, n = 1), Puerto Rico (12.5%, n = 1), and St Vincent and the Grenadines (12.5%, n = 1).…”

“…Two studies (50%) were conducted with the general population [ 26 , 28 ]. The remaining two studies were conducted on adolescents [ 24 ] and university students [ 27 ].…”

“…Summarising the statistically significant findings, negative community attitudes significantly predict negative help-seeking attitudes [ 26 ]. Opinions of mental health conditions that were authoritarian, socially restrictive, or less benevolent, reflecting the attitudes aspect of public stigma, were associated with greater negative attitudes towards professional help-seeking [ 24 ]. A belief that the cause of mental health conditions is not the fault of the individual, reflecting the attitudes aspect of public stigma, led to a greater likelihood of seeking care from religious sources compared to hospitals or clinics [ 28 ].…”

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“…The use of general help-seeking tools for any health condition has been reported helpful with disease management; however, levels of general help-seeking vary across conditions and could be directly influenced by disease-specific processes. 36,40,41 Among young adult populations, the tendency to seek help is generally poor. 9 This was also the case in the present study, with AAYA having a low to moderate mean tendency to seek help when in pain.…”