Perceived Peer Norms and Help Seeking for Depression in Indian College Youth (original) (raw)
Related papers
2020
Background: Depression is a common mental illness experienced by a high percentage of Indian adolescents but, a little is known on their knowledge of and help-seeking behavior for depression. Aim: To investigate the school-going adolescents' attitudes towards and help-seeking strategies for dealing with depression. Methods: In this exploratory qualitative study, data were collected through twelve focus group discussions with one hundred adolescent boys and girls (aged 15−18 years) from six government-run secondary schools of Nalanda district of Bihar, India. Group discussions generated responses on adolescents’ understanding and causes of depression, and available help and treatment for depression in their communities. Coding of prominent themes and words from transcribed discussions were entered in NVivo 10 for analysis. Results: Four themes emerged: (1) adolescents' description of depression, (2) beliefs about adolescent depression; (3) impact of depression; and (4) help-s...
Psychosocial factors associated with help-seeking behavior among depressive adolescents
European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 1997
A group of 3,287 French school pupils between the age of 12 to 20 years, of whom 14.4% had sought consultation for depression, were investigated in order to analyse the factors related to the type of medical help obtained. Multivariate analyses showed that severe emotional distress alone did not explain the help-seeking behavior. Thus, among those adolescents with the same anxio-depressive level, girls, older adolescents, adolescents with parents living apart, with health worries, and adolescents often absent from school more often sought help for depression. Socioeconomic status, however, did not correlate with a higher level of consultation for depression. Adolescents attending medical services for depression had a higher consultation rate, for any reason, with general practitioners and with school nurses, in whom they confided more often than their counterparts. Nonmedical professionals also seemed to contribute to accessing to medical help for depression. Overall, those who consulted for depression, in very limited numbers turned to mental health services (8.4%).
HELP-SEEKING BEHAVIOR OF MENTAL HEALTH AMONGST THE YOUTH
Dogo Rangsang Research Journal, 2023
The concept of mental health is about enhancing competencies of individuals and communities and enabling them to achieve their self-determined goals. Mental health should be a concern for all of us, rather than only for those who suffer from a mental disorder. The rise of increase in burden of mental health issues affecting youth in particular is concerning. Investing time in identifying the problems early and intervene at the right time, preventing further breakdown. The present study sought to understand the level of help seeking behavior amongst the youth with special focus on students who are studying in a University setting. The present study tried to understand the barriers and issues faced by the youth in accessing mental health services and also, their fear and insecurities while accessing such services. The study used both qualitative and quantitative research design along with descriptive analysis. The results of the study shows that further work is needed to improve helpseeking intention among the youth as almost half the sample indicated that they would not seek help of any kind. Ideally, all youth should report an intention to seek help, regardless of whom they would prefer to seek help, either formal or informal sources of help.
Cross-sectional study of depression and help-seeking in Uttarakhand, North India
Objectives: This study sought to use a population-based cross-sectional survey to describe depression prevalence, healthcare seeking and associations with socioeconomic determinants in a district in North India. Participants: A population-based sample of 960 people over the age of 18 years was selected in 30 randomised clusters after being stratified by rural:urban census ratios. Primary outcome measures: The survey used a validated screening tool, Patient Health Questionnaire, to identify people with depression, and collected information regarding socioeconomic variables and help-seeking behaviours. Depression prevalence and health seeking behaviours were calculated, and multivariable logistic regression was used to assess associations between risk factors and depression. Results: Prevalence of depression was 6% (58/960), with a further 3.9% (37/960) describing a depressive episode of over 2 weeks in the past 12 months. Statistically significant adjusted OR for depression of more than 2 were found for people who were illiterate, classified as Scheduled Caste/Tribe or Other Backward Castes, living in temporary material housing and who had recently taken a loan. While over three quarters of people with depression (79%) had attended a private or government general medical practitioner in the past 3 months, none had received talking therapy (100% treatment gap) and two people (3.3%) had been prescribed antidepressants.
Help-seeking for mental health concerns: review of Indian research and emergent insights
Journal of Health Research
PurposeThe purpose of this review was to examine Indian research on help-seeking for mental health problems in adults.Design/methodology/approachOriginal Indian research studies on help-seeking for mental health, published from the year 2001−2019 were searched on PubMed, EBSCO, ProQuest and OVID using a set of relevant keywords. After applying exclusion criteria, 52 relevant research studies were identified.FindingsThe reviewed studies spanned a variety of themes such as barriers and facilitators to help-seeking, sources of help-seeking, causal attributions as well as other correlates of help-seeking, process of help-seeking and interventions to increase help-seeking. The majority of these studies were carried out in general community samples or treatment-seeking samples. Very few studies incorporated non-treatment seeking distressed samples. There is a severe dearth of studies on interventions to improve help-seeking. Studies indicate multiple barriers to seeking professional help ...
BMC Public Health, 2017
Background: Many young people are reluctant to seek professional help for mental health problems, preferring to rely on their friends for support. It is therefore important to ensure that adolescents can identify signs of psychological distress in their peers, talk to them about these, and help them access appropriate services when necessary. The current study examined adolescents' ability to recognise symptoms of depression and alcohol misuse, perceived barriers to helpseeking, and their intentions to encourage a peer to seek help from a range of informal and formal help sources. Method: The current study used baseline data from a randomised controlled trial of a school-based intervention that teaches adolescents how to overcome barriers to accessing professional help for mental health and substance use problems (MAKINGtheLINK). Participants (n = 2456) were presented with two vignettes portraying depression and alcohol misuse, respectively, and were asked to identify the problems described. Participants provided data on their past help-seeking behaviour, confidence to help a peer, perceived barriers to help-seeking, and intentions to encourage a peer to seek help. Results: Health professionals were the main source of help that participants had relied on for depressive symptoms, followed by friends and parents. In contrast, friends were the main source of help that participants had relied on for alcohol and other drug problems, followed by health professionals and parents. Just over half of the sample correctly identified the problems described in the two vignettes, although the majority of participants were confident that they could talk to a peer and help them seek professional help if needed. Most agreed that the vignettes described problems that warranted professional help, however approximately half the sample was unsure or considered it unlikely that they would seek help if they experienced similar problems. For both disorders, participants were most likely to encourage a peer to seek help from their family, followed by formal help sources and friends. Conclusions: While the results point towards a greater willingness to approach formal help sources, particularly for depression, peers remain an important source of support for young people experiencing mental health and substance use problems.
Non-professional help-seeking among young people with depression: a qualitative study
Adolescents and young adults often suffer from depression, but tend to avoid seeking professional help. The aim of this study was to explore the reasons for non-professional-helpseeking in a sample of young adults resident in Catalonia with depressive symptoms through a qualitative study. In addition, the subjects were invited to offer their recommendations for making mental health care services more accessible.
The study investigated the roles of perceived social support and stress in the help-seeking attitude for mental health of young adults. Respondents (n = 385) were interviewed using the multidimentional scale of perceived social support and the perceived stress scales. Participants' ages ranged from 18 to 24 years. The hypotheses were tested with the simple and multiple regression models at 5% level of significance. Findings indicated a positive and significant relationship between perceived social support and attitude towards help-seeking for mental health. It was also found that perceived stress has no significant relationship with attitude towards help-seeking for mental health. The discussions of the results centered on the use of denial defense mechanism, cultural provisions, stigma, negative helper's evaluations and fear of labeling. It is recommended that help-seeking be incorporated into the educational curriculum with a much friendlier approach in sensitizing the young adults towards help-seeking for ailments that are suggestive of mental disorder. This will help in eradicating the stigma associated with mental health as well as make help-seeking more attractive.