Chinese University Students' Perspectives on Help-Seeking and Mental Health Counseling

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2022-07, Vol.19 (14), p.8259
Main Authors: Ning, Xuan, Wong, Josephine Pui-Hing, Huang, Silang, Fu, Yina, Gong, Xiaojie, Zhang, Lizeng, Hilario, Carla, Fung, Kenneth Po-Lun, Yu, Miao, Poon, Maurice Kwong-Lai, Cheng, Shengli, Gao, Jianguo, Jia, Cun-Xian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
China
College campuses
Counseling
Empowerment
Families & family life
Female
Focus groups
Health education
Health literacy
Health services
Help seeking behavior
Higher education
Humans
Illnesses
Literacy
Male
Mental depression
Mental disorders
Mental Disorders - psychology
Mental Disorders - therapy
Mental Health
Mental health care
Patient Acceptance of Health Care - psychology
Professionals
Psychological stress
Stigma
Students
Students - psychology
Suicides & suicide attempts
Universities
University students
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph19148259