published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Sciences

This study explored the relationship between cultural mistrust level and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. It was hypothesized that Blacks with high levels of cultural mistrust, when compared to those with low levels, would show less favorable attitudes toward seeking formal help for psychological problems. Black students were administered the Cultural Mistrust Inventory, Help-Seeking Attitude Scale, Reid-Gundlach Social Service Satisfaction Scale, and Opinions About Mental Illness Scale. Using a 2 (gender) X 2 (mistrust level) MANCOVA, a main effect for the factor of mistrust level was found along with a mistrust level by gender interaction. Students with higher levels of cultural mistrust were found to hold less favorable attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help when compared to students with lower levels of cultural mistrust.

The diploma thesis is devoted to the area of mental health problems / mental illnesses as a possible topic of general primary prevention in the school environment. It points out, that the mental health and illness is not being systematically solved. In the area of primary prevention is not given the kind of attention it deserves. In the theoretical part, basic notions are defined first, such as mental health and illness, risk behavior, stigma and prevention. The focus is on the period of adolescence and the perspective of possible links between risky behaviors and mental health problems/illnesses. The theoretical part of the work is also centered on the coping strategies of adolescents and the area of general primary prevention of risk behavior in the current concept of the Ministry of Education. That includes ensuring and controlling the quality and effectiveness of primary prevention programs. In brief, follow-up care - supported education and early intervention is discussed. The aim of the work is to map the relation of the needs of young people with mental illnesses and primary prevention. In addition, the findings will be a base for recommendations how to incorporate the topic of mental health and illness into the existing system of primary prevention. The methodology is based on a qualitative research...

Background Self-harm is a major and growing public health issue among young people worldwide. Self-harm is an important risk factor for suicide, which is one of the leading causes of death for young people. Although suicide rates are declining overall, this trend is not seen in young people. Young people with mental distress and/or suicidal thoughts are reluctant to seek help, and often drop out of treatment initiated after a self-harm episode. Many young people who self-harm have had contact with healthcare before their first self-harm episode, but often for reasons other than suicidal thoughts or psychiatric problems. In this context, physical illness is associated with increased risk for self-harm and suicide among young people. The present thesis investigated how young people perceived the help and support they received before and after an episode of self-harm. A further aim was to map the inpatient somatic healthcare contacts young patients had before an episode of self-harm, and determine any relationship to risk for self-harm and suicide. Method Four studies were conducted using qualitative and quantitative methods. Participants were people aged 16-24 years. The definition of self-harm was based on the intentional self-harm criteria in the International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision, which includes all forms of self-harm without ascribing suicidal intent. In the first two studies, 10 respective 9 participants with a first healthcare contact for self-harm were interviewed during 2009-2011. The interviews covered participants’ knowledge and experience of professional care before their healthcare contact for self-harm. Participants were interviewed a second time 6 months later about their experiences with professional care during the period since their initial interview. Qualitative content analysis was used for all interviews. For the next two studies, we selected 16,235 participants with a first hospitalisation for self-harm during 1999-2009 from the Swedish National Inpatient Register. These cases were compared with matched controls to determine the odds of having been admitted with a non-psychiatric diagnosis during the year preceding the self-harm admission. To assess risk for suicide, data were retrieved from the Swedish Cause of Death Register for all deceased participants until 2013, and group differences were determined using survival analysis. Results In the first interview, participants described how they wanted more information on where they could turn for professional help. They also wanted different help-seeking pathways and emphasised the importance of the quality of professional contact. After 6 months, participants stressed the importance of being able to rely on professionals and treatment. Their life circumstances significantly affected their treatment, and practical help was appreciated. The register studies showed that young people admitted for self-harm were more likely to have been hospitalised with symptomatic diagnoses such as abdominal pain and syncope/collapse, and somatic illnesses such as epilepsy and diabetes mellitus type 1. A higher proportion of cases (4.5%; women 2.6%, men 8.8%) died during the study period than controls (0.3%; women 0.2%, men 0.6%) (p<0.001). For both cases and controls, a higher proportion of those with a previous somatic admission died from suicide during the study period than those without a somatic admission (cases: 4.2% vs. 2.8%, p<0.05). For cases with a somatic admission, the hazard ratio was 1.43 (95% confidence interval 1.04-1.98) compared with those without somatic admissions (controlled for age, sex and psychiatric admission). Survival of cases with a previous somatic admission compared with those without was 98.4% versus 99.2% after the first year, 97.8% versus 98.9% after the second year, and 95.5% versus 96.9% after the tenth year. Conclusion These findings suggest that healthcare providers need to find new ways to reach young people at risk for suicidal behaviour. Access to professional help should be easy and direct. Treatment for young people after self-harm should be flexible, and be receptive to input from the patient. The importance of and need for basic practical help should not be overlooked. Somatic healthcare contact provides an opportunity for intervention, particularly as psychiatric problems can manifest as physical symptoms, and physical illness is a risk factor for self-harm and suicide.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

Attitudes toward mental illness and the willingness to seek psychological treatment for their children among ethnic minority group parents were investigated. Participants consisted of black, Hispanic, Native American and Asian parents. All parents were given the Terrell and Terrell Cultural Mistrust Inventory, Cohen and Struening Opinions About Mental Illness Scale, Reid-Gundlach Social Services Satisfaction Scale, Fischer-Turner Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Help Scale, and Ahluwalia Parents' Psychological Help-Seeking Inventory. A multiple regression model was used to explore the purpose of this study. Parental mistrust level, ethnicity, education, income level, and opinions about mental illness served as predictor variables. The criterion variables consisted of scores on the Social Services Satisfaction Scale and Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale. The results indicated that the most significant predictor of psychological help-seeking was parental cultural mistrust level. Parents with higher cultural mistrust levels were less likely to seek help. Education was also predictive of black and Native American parents' help-seeking attitude and willingness to seek psychological help for their children. Black and Native Americans with lower levels of education were less willing to seek treatment for their children than members of those ethnic groups with higher levels of education. Ethnicity was also related to parental willingness to seek help for their children. Hispanic and black parents expressed more willingness to seek help than Native American and Asian parents. Finally, parents' opinions about mental illness were found to be significantly related to help-seeking attitude. Parents with positive opinions about mental illness were more likely to utilize professional psychological help than those parents with negative opinions about mental illness. Some clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Based on theoretical reasoning and empirical evidence, the present study examined the unique and shared effects of attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and acculturation on attitudes toward seeking professional help among Latino college students. The research participants included 149 bilingual Latino college students from a large, public southwestern university. Results of a multiple regression analysis indicated that attachment avoidance was positively associated with both the recognition of need for psychological help and stigma of seeking professional help. Acculturation to American society was found to be statistically insignificant in predicting help-seeking attitudes in this sample of the population. Findings from exploratory questions suggested that Latino individuals would most likely seek help from parents, close friends, and then professionals. This study suggested that Latino individuals with high attachment avoidance acknowledge the potential benefit of professional help-seeking but distrust the process of approaching others for help. Limitations, implications, and future research directions will be discussed.

The present study investigated teacher motivation in a high-stakes accountability context. Specifically, this study examines elementary teachers' achievement goal orientations, self-efficacy for teaching, and perceptions of help-seeking in the context of high-stakes testing and school accountability under No Child Left Behind and an Elementary and Secondary Education Act waiver. Butler's (2007) teacher achievement goal orientation framework provided the theoretical basis of the present study; high-stakes tests and school accountability status were thought to impact teachers’ achievement goal orientations. Additionally, teachers' achievement goal orientations were thought to impact teaching self-efficacy and perceptions of help-seeking. The sample included 381 elementary school teachers. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and hierarchical multiple regression were used to examine the relationships between and among high-stakes testing and issues teachers perceive to be related to these tests, stress related to high-stakes tests, school accountability status, teachers’ achievement goal orientations, teaching self-efficacy, and perceptions of teacher help-seeking. Results suggest that, for this sample, dimensions of teachers’ achievement goal orientations differ from the dimensions characterized by Butler and colleagues (Butler, 2007; Butler & Shibaz, 2008; Nitsche et al., 2010; Cho & Shim, 2013; Shim et al., 2013). Specifically, teachers in this sample exhibited mastery and work-avoidance goals, as characterized by Butler (2007), but not performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals. Teachers here distinguished between personal performance orientation, or motivation driven by external factors (e.g., recognition from administrators) and using others as the referent to which they compared their own performance (e.g., colleagues). Additionally, class performance orientation emerged as a distinct dimension of teachers’ achievement goal orientations for this sample. Those who espoused this orientation sought for their classes to compare favorably with other classes and were motivated by external factors, such as their class scoring high on state-wide tests. Teacher achievement goal orientations were related to high-stakes testing, but school issues related to high-stakes testing and stress associated with these tests were more salient predictors of teachers’ achievement goal orientations than whether teachers taught in testing grades or not. Finally, teachers’ achievement goal orientations were significant predictors of self-efficacy for teaching and teachers’ perceptions of their own help-seeking.