Undergraduate Students' Parental Attachment and Attitude toward Seeking Professional Help for Mental Health Problems: Mediating Effects of Depressive Vulnerability

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand the mediating effect of depressive vulnerability between parental attachment and attitude toward seeking professional help for mental health problems. Methods: The survey data of 200 university students were analyzed. The independent variable was parental attachment, the dependent variable was attitude toward seeking professional help, and the mediating variable was depressive vulnerability. The hypothesis was tested by the maximum likelihood method (ML) to analyze the covariate structure. For the statistical significance of the direct and indirect effects of the hypothetical model, bootstrapping was used. Results: In the relationship between parental attachment and attitude toward seeking professional help, depressive vulnerability showed complete mediation. Conclusion: In order to positively improve the professional help seeking attitude, efforts are needed to reduce depressive vulnerability by maintaining stable parental attachment. Parents should maintain emotional connection to provide a sense of security and emotional comfort to university students. In order to reduce depressive vulnerability, positive reinforcement with affection and social support from family, colleagues, and instructors is needed.