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Citation |
Thompson LK, Sugg MM, Runkle JR. Soc. Sci. Med. 2018; 215: 69-79. |
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Affiliation |
North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies, North Carolina State University, 151 Patton Avenue, Asheville, NC, 28801, United States. Electronic address: jrrunkle@ncsu.edu. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing) |
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DOI |
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PMID |
30216891 |
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Abstract |
Nearly 3 out of 4 all lifelong mental disorders occur by the age of twenty-four. Remote crisis support holds great potential in filling a critical gap in complementing and expanding access to mental health services for acute episodes of mental distress in adolescents and young adults; yet little is understood about the individual factors that influence help-seeking behavior in this group. Recent evidence suggests technology-based mental health services have high acceptability among youth and may be used to treat anxiety and depression. The objective of this study was to examine county-level help-seeking behavior among adolescents and young adults using Crisis Text Line (CTL). CTL is a free, text-based crisis counseling service that has been available nationally since 2013. Spatial error regression was used to (1) identify the individual-level factors that correlate with help-seeking behavior for depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and (2) to explore the geographic trends in text-based help-seeking behavior between adolescents and young adults across the rural-urban continuum. Increased rates of text-based help-seeking occurred in counties with higher mean household incomes, higher divorce rates, and lower residential stability. Rurality was the strongest predictor for low rates of help-seeking, and this finding is particularly concerning in light of elevated rates of suicide among rural counties. Rural communities, particularly those with low support-seeking behavior and comparatively high suicide rates, should be the target of future research and outreach. Language: en |
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Keywords |
Adolescent; Crisis hotline; Depression; Help-seeking; Mental health; Suicide; United States |