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Article: Stigma towards mental illness, resilience, and help-seeking behaviours in undergraduate students in Hong Kong

TitleStigma towards mental illness, resilience, and help-seeking behaviours in undergraduate students in Hong Kong
Authors
Keywordsdepression
help-seeking
resilience
stigma
undergraduate students
Issue Date12-Jul-2023
PublisherWiley
Citation
Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 2023 How to Cite?
Abstract

Aim

Early interventions have great impact on reducing burden of mental illness. Young people are however the least likely to seek help for psychological issues. Resilience and stigma towards mental illness have been identified as contributing factors, although previous findings were mixed with potentially complex interaction with symptom severity. We investigated the relationship between stigma, resilience, depressive symptom severity, and help-seeking behaviours in undergraduate students in Hong Kong.

Methods

A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among undergraduates from a university in Hong Kong (n = 945). The 21-item Stigma and Acceptance Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 were used. History of help-seeking for psychological issues was self-reported. Path analysis was conducted to test a conceptual model of their relationships.

Results

Among those with moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms (39.5%), only one-fourth had sought professional help. The path model showed that depressive symptom severity and stigma were positively associated with help-seeking behaviours, while resilience was negatively associated with help-seeking behaviours independently (all p < .001). Subgroup analyses showed differential contribution of stigma and resilience to a history of help-seeking in those with minimal-to-mild symptoms compared with moderate-to-severe symptoms.

Conclusions

Stigma may be a barrier for help-seeking particularly in students with moderate-to-severe depression. Higher levels of resilience in young people may be protective and reduce the unnecessary seeking of professional help. Therefore, enhancing resilience among students in general, and reducing stigma and promoting help-seeking behaviours for those who have moderate-to-severe symptoms should be consider in parallel as strategies to enhance mental wellbeing of students.


Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/330932
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 2.1
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 0.976
ISI Accession Number ID

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorSum, MY-
dc.contributor.authorChan, SKW-
dc.contributor.authorTsui, HKH-
dc.contributor.authorWong, GHY-
dc.date.accessioned2023-09-21T06:51:14Z-
dc.date.available2023-09-21T06:51:14Z-
dc.date.issued2023-07-12-
dc.identifier.citationEarly Intervention in Psychiatry, 2023-
dc.identifier.issn1751-7885-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/330932-
dc.description.abstract<h3>Aim</h3><p>Early interventions have great impact on reducing burden of mental illness. Young people are however the least likely to seek help for psychological issues. Resilience and stigma towards mental illness have been identified as contributing factors, although previous findings were mixed with potentially complex interaction with symptom severity. We investigated the relationship between stigma, resilience, depressive symptom severity, and help-seeking behaviours in undergraduate students in Hong Kong.</p><h3>Methods</h3><p>A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among undergraduates from a university in Hong Kong (<em>n</em> = 945). The 21-item Stigma and Acceptance Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 were used. History of help-seeking for psychological issues was self-reported. Path analysis was conducted to test a conceptual model of their relationships.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>Among those with moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms (39.5%), only one-fourth had sought professional help. The path model showed that depressive symptom severity and stigma were positively associated with help-seeking behaviours, while resilience was negatively associated with help-seeking behaviours independently (all <em>p</em> < .001). Subgroup analyses showed differential contribution of stigma and resilience to a history of help-seeking in those with minimal-to-mild symptoms compared with moderate-to-severe symptoms.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Stigma may be a barrier for help-seeking particularly in students with moderate-to-severe depression. Higher levels of resilience in young people may be protective and reduce the unnecessary seeking of professional help. Therefore, enhancing resilience among students in general, and reducing stigma and promoting help-seeking behaviours for those who have moderate-to-severe symptoms should be consider in parallel as strategies to enhance mental wellbeing of students.</p>-
dc.languageeng-
dc.publisherWiley-
dc.relation.ispartofEarly Intervention in Psychiatry-
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.-
dc.subjectdepression-
dc.subjecthelp-seeking-
dc.subjectresilience-
dc.subjectstigma-
dc.subjectundergraduate students-
dc.titleStigma towards mental illness, resilience, and help-seeking behaviours in undergraduate students in Hong Kong-
dc.typeArticle-
dc.identifier.doi10.1111/eip.13455-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-85165208419-
dc.identifier.eissn1751-7893-
dc.identifier.isiWOS:001028222600001-
dc.identifier.issnl1751-7885-

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