Improving College Students' Mental Help-Seeking Intention During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Cleveland State University926 enrolled

Overview

This study aimed at testing the effectiveness of a longitudinal intervention in increasing college students' intention to seek mental help during the pandemic.

This study aimed at testing the effectiveness of a longitudinal intervention in increasing college students' intention to seek mental help during the pandemic. A four-armed randomized controlled experiment was conducted to compare two self-persuasion methods against two control conditions. Assessments took place at baseline (T0), post-first treatment (T1), post-second treatment (six weeks, T2), and ten-week follow-up (T3). The results showed that the intervention significantly increased students' help-seeking intention, attitude, and efficacy at different time points. It also reduced mental help-seeking-related stigma after the first task.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

926

Conditions

Help-Seeking Behavior Mental Health Issue

Interventions

Mental help-seeking self-persuasionBEHAVIORAL

Employing a longitudinal design, this study used a self-persuasion framework in a 4-arm intervention to increase college students' help-seeking intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 100 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * 18 years old or older * Full-time undergraduate students * Had more than a moderate amount of mental distress Exclusion Criteria: * Under 18 years old * Not full-time undergraduate students * Had less than a moderate amount of mental distress

Locations (1)

Texas A&M University

College Station, Texas, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Help-Seeking Intention

Help-Seeking Intention was measured by one item created based on recommendations by Ajzen (2002). Measured on a 5-point scale (1 = extremely unlikely, 5 = extremely likely), this item asked, "If you have a personal-emotional problem, how likely is it that you would seek help from a mental health professional (a psychologist, psychologist, or psychotherapist)?" Higher scores on this item suggest higher intentions to seek professional mental help.

Time frame: 10 weeks

Help-Seeking Behavior

Help-Seeking Behavior was measured by a validated item modified from previous research based on the transtheoretical model (Sarkin et al., 2001). The item asked about if a participant has sought mental help from a health care professional. Answers to this item included "1 = not intending to seek help in the next six months," "2 = intending to seek help in the next six months," "3 = planning to seek help in the next 30 days," "4 = have already sought help but for less than six months," and "5 = have been under treatment for more than six months."

Time frame: 10 weeks

Secondary Outcomes

Mental help-seeking attitudes

participants rated 1 ("strongly disagree") to 5 ("strongly agree") on ten items of the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale-Short Form (ATSPPHS-SF) (Fischer \& Farina, 1995).

Time frame: 10 weeks

Self-stigma of seeking mental help

Participants rated 1 ("strongly disagree") to 5 ("strongly agree") on ten items adopted from the Self-Stigma of Seeking Help (SSOSH) scale (Vogel et al., 2006).

Time frame: 10/2020 - 1/10 weeks

Mental help-seeking efficacy

Mental Help-Seeking Efficacy was measured by five items modified from previous research (Mo \& Mak, 2009) and recommendations (Ajzen, 2002). Participants rated 1 ("strongly disagree") to 5 ("strongly agree") on the answers.

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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