Citation

Nearchou FA, Bird N, Costello A, Duggan S, Gilroy J, Long R, McHugh L, Hennessy E. J. Adolesc. 2018; 66: 83-90.

Affiliation

University College Dublin, School of Psychology, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. Electronic address: eilis.hennessy@ucd.ie.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.adolescence.2018.05.003

PMID

29800758

Abstract

This study aimed to determine predictors of help-seeking intentions for symptoms of depression/anxiety and self-harm in adolescents. It focused on personal and perceived public stigma to gather data of value for the design of anti-stigma interventions. Participants (n = 722; 368 girls) were recruited from three cohorts of secondary school students in Ireland (mean ages: 1st = 12.9 years; 3rd = 14.9 years; 5th = 16.6 years). Hierarchical regression models indicated that perceived public stigma is a significant unique predictor of help-seeking intentions for depression [F(4, 717) = 13.4, p < .001] and self-harm [F(4, 717) = 13.5, p < .001]. This indicates that young people's beliefs about other people's stigma towards mental health problems was a stronger predictor of help-seeking intentions than their own stigma beliefs. These findings highlight the importance of looking separately at different types of stigma when investigating the role of stigma in predicting help-seeking intentions.

Copyright © 2018 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescence; Help-seeking; Mental health; Personal stigma; Public stigma