TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2022//
TI  - Chinese university students' perspectives on help-seeking and mental health counseling
JO  - International journal of environmental research and public health
A1  - Ning, Xuan
A1  - Wong, Pui-Hing
A1  - Huang, Silang
A1  - Fu, Yina
A1  - Gong, Xiaojie
A1  - Zhang, Lizeng
A1  - Hilario, Carla
A1  - Fung, Po-Lun
A1  - Yu, Miao
A1  - Poon, Kwong-Lai
A1  - Cheng, Shengli
A1  - Gao, Jianguo
A1  - Jia, Cun-xian
SP  - e8259
EP  - e8259
VL  - 19
IS  - 14
N2  - Psychological distress and mental illness have become increasingly pervasive among Chinese university students. However, many university students who need mental health treatment or psychological support do not actively seek help from professional counselors or service providers, which could lead to poor mental health outcomes. To promote help-seeking, we undertook a qualitative study to understand Chinese university students' perspectives on help-seeking and mental health counseling. We conducted 13 focus group interviews with students in six universities in Jinan, China, and altogether 91 (62%) female students, and 56 (38%) male students participated in the study. Our results indicate that students' misconception and distrust of on-campus counseling, stigma of mental illness, low mental health literacy, and hard-to-access mental health services are the major barriers that impede students help-seeking behaviors. Internal struggles and systematic and organizational barriers are identified to shed light on future work to promote mental health literacy among Chinese university students.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1661-7827
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148259
ID  - ref1
ER  -