The purpose of the study is to examine help seeking attitudes and behaviors in graduate students studying to be counselors (e.g. mental health, school, community/agency Masters students; PhD students in Counselor Education). A random sample of 1,000 student members of the American Counseling Association was surveyed. Of the 1,000 questionnaires mailed, 310 were returned for a rate of 31%. Attitudes about psychological help seeking were assessed using the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help scale (short form; Fischer & Farina, 1995). The stigma associated with seeking psychological help can also be salient to help seeking attitudes and behaviors. Two scales measuring stigma concerns for seeking psychological help were selected for the current study: the Self Stigma of Seeking Help (private stigma; Vogel, Wester, Haake, 2003), and the Social Stigma for Receiving Psychological Help (public stigma; Komiya, Goode, & Sherrod, 2000). Finally, participants’ level of comfort with disclosing distressing information to others was measured using the Distress Disclosure Index (Kahn & Hessling, 2001).
Existing research also suggests that individuals’ perceptions of practical (e.g. cost, time, transportation) and emotional (e.g. stigma concerns) barriers to counseling influence their help seeking behaviors. Counseling trainees were asked about their perceived barriers to seeking psychological help as they influenced concerns about the affordability, accessibility, availability, and acceptability of seeking psychological help.
In order to answer questions regarding counseling trainees’ psychological help seeking attitudes and behaviors, the statistical tools of t-tests of independent samples, analysis of variance, and multiple regression were applied. Results indicated that counseling trainees who had not previously sought psychological help held more negative attitudes toward seeking that help, and had higher levels of stigma concerns (public and private) about seeking psychological help. Level of graduate training did not appear to impact stigma concerns about seeking help. Finally, in the multiple regression analysis, predictor variables of self (private) stigma concerns, previous experience of counseling, social (public) stigma concerns, gender, and comfort with distress disclosure explained 32% of the variance in participants’ attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help scores (ATSPPHS).