Help-seeking intention among junior-high school students and its relationship with depression

Abstract

Patterns of help-seeking intentions among junior high-school student participants (n = 2383' 1245 men and 1138 women) were investigated. Participants were inquired about their intention to seek help from peers, parents, teachers, and school counselors. Then, the relationships between help-seeking intentions and scores in the Depression Self-Rating Scale for Children (DSRS), as well as the degree of participants' concerns were evaluated. Results indicated that most participants preferred to seek help from peers. Moreover, first-year students had the highest number of help-seeking intentions directed at parents, whereas third-year students had the highest number of help-seeking intentions regarding academic-career concerns, directed at peers and teachers. Results also indicated that students with more concerns had higher levels of help-seeking intentions. Furthermore, there were significant negative correlations between high levels of help-seeking intentions and "declining activity and pleasure" scores while correlations between help-seeking intentions and "depressive mood" scores in the DSRS were not significant. These findings suggest that depression has a negative effect on help-seeking intentions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)