Are psychotherapist trainees more willing to seeking psychological help than average college students? The roles of mental health literacy and self-stigma

Abstract

This study aimed to compare college students majoring in psychotherapy related fields and college students majoring in other fields in terms of their attitudes toward seeking psychological help, mental health literacy, and self-stigma. Comparisons were also made regarding the patterns of relationships between the three variables. A cross-sectional design was adopted. The results showed that psychotherapist trainees had higher levels of mental health literacy than college students of other majors, but no significant differences were found in help-seeking attitudes and self-stigma. For both groups of students, mental health literacy and self-stigma were significant predictors of help-seeking attitudes. Content analysis was conducted to find out the factors which influenced students’ decision to seek psychological help other than the ones investigated in the questionnaire. Implications to counsellor training and enhancing college students’ help-seeking in general were discussed.