Mental Health Problems and Perceived Barriers in Seeking Psychological Help: A Survey of Students at the University of the Witwatersrand
Date
2022-09
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Abstract
Aim: The study examined help-seeking behaviours and attitudes among students at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. The goal was to investigate students' referred sources of help while they were experiencing psychological distress, as well as the perceived barriers to getting psychological care. The Health Belief Model (HBM) was used as the theoretical framework, which attempted to discover whether the HBM variables predict formal help-seeking among students. Methods: The data was acquired from a suitable sample of 165 students using a cross-sectional survey design. A demographic questionnaire, a list of different sources of assistance, the Health Beliefs about Mental Illness (HBMI) instrument, the Barriers to Care Evaluation (BACE) scale, and the Barriers to Help Seeking (BHSS) scale were all included in the survey. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, version 27) was used to analyse the data. Results: The findings revealed that only one-third (33.3%) of the students preferred seeking help from a mental health professional. The most important barriers identified were students preferring to deal with psychological issues on their own as they perceived symptoms not to be serious enough to warrant professional intervention; stress and anxiety were considered a normal part of life, and many students were unaware of helping resources and how to access them. The logistic regression analysis indicated that only the perceived benefits made a unique statistically significant contribution to the model, recording an odds ratio of 2.99. The results revealed that the odds of seeking formal help are about 3 times greater for students who perceive seeking formal help as beneficial compared to those who perceive formal help-seeking as not beneficial (OR 2.99; 95% CI: 1.45-6.20; p = 0.003). Conclusion: Understanding barriers to psychological help-seeking is imperative to ensuring early access to psychological services and improving mental well-being. Therefore, the current findings suggest that strategies and initiatives such as psycho-educational programs and awareness campaigns highlighting the availability and purpose of psychological services on campuses, as well as the benefits of utilizing psychological services, are necessary. This would make psychological services more desirable to students, thereby reducing the identified barriers.
Description
A research report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Social and Psychological Research (PSYC7022), in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, School of Human and Community Development, at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023.
Keywords
Citation
Ngcobo, Zinhle Penelope. (2022). Mental Health Problems and Perceived Barriers in Seeking Psychological Help: A Survey of Students at the University of the Witwatersrand. [Master's dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WIReDSpace. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40559