Broglia, E. orcid.org/0000-0003-2137-8187, Millings, A. and Barkham, M. orcid.org/0000-0003-1687-6376 (2021) Student mental health profiles and barriers to help seeking: When and why students seek help for a mental health concern. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 21 (4). pp. 816-826. ISSN 1473-3145
Abstract
Background
The student mental health landscape in higher education requires preventative strategies that maintain daily functioning as well as early intervention to respond to episodes of mental ill-health. As a community, this requires capturing the needs of students in the general university population as well as those using counselling and psychological wellbeing services.
Aims
This cross-sectional study aimed to characterise the mental health profile of students in the general university population and identify barriers to help seeking.
Methods
A total of 1,956 students from five UK universities completed an online questionnaire comprising the CCAPS-34 and open-ended questions about their mental health concerns and intentions to seek help. Mental health profiles were explored using mixed factorial ANOVAs and post hoc simple effect analyses. Help-seeking behaviours and intentions were identified using conceptual content analysis.
Results
Distinctive mental health profiles emerged across faculties and help-seeking behaviours. Content analysis identified students’ help-seeking experiences, intentions, preferences and barriers.
Conclusions
Characterising the mental health profile of students outside of support services, as well as their barriers to seeking help, provides a rich understanding for shaping preventative policies and service provision. Doing so will respond to student mental health needs before they require clinical intervention.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Authors. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. |
Keywords: | help-seeking behaviour; higher education; measurement; policy; prevention; student mental health |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 25 Oct 2021 14:05 |
Last Modified: | 25 Oct 2021 14:05 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/capr.12462 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:179591 |