archives@tulane.edu / 1 / Alejandra Leyton

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This study investigated computer users’ help-seeking behaviors within the context of accomplishing a novel and challenging computer task. In addition, this study examined how different help-seeking behavioral variables relate to both personal factors and outcome measures in an exploratory manner. Finally, a structural model examined the effect of personal factors on task performance through the mediating function of help-seeking effectiveness. A total of 67 undergraduate students participated in the study. Participants were asked to perform a challenging task in Microsoft Word. The usability software MORAE was used to record the interactions between participants and computer systems. Participants had access to five help sources: “F1 help,” “reference book,” “the Web,” “video tutorial,” and “lab assistant,” which differ in media type (electronic vs. non-electronic) and interactivity levels (high vs. low). This study found that participants showed a wide range of help-seeking behaviors. Some participants were more active in seeking help than others. Participants also engaged in different help-seeking patterns when using different help sources. A dominant help-seeking strategy was to stay with the same source used in the previous help-seeking episode. Help-seeking behavior affected task performances, but personal factors had no significant effect on help seeking or task performances. Based on the findings, the research value of this study, its practical implications, its limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

Haitians in the United States represent the fourth largest immigrant population from the Caribbean. As in the case of many immigrant populations, Haitian immigrant adaptation has been challenged by social, political and economic factors, and as a result they have had to seek legal, health, and social services. According to the literature, help-seeking behaviors among Haitian immigrants have been associated with traditional indices of socioeconomic status, namely education, occupation, or income. This study takes a more in-depth look at the influence of social class by approaching it as cultural construct in the context of historical patterns of Haitian immigrant incorporation. Most Haitians arrived during the latter half of the 20th century in four successive waves, the 1957, 1970, 1980 and 1991 wave. Each of these waves of Haitian immigration represented a distinct context of departure and social class composition. A qualitative approach was used to obtain rich information on the role of help-seeking in the immigration and incorporation experience of Haitians from the perspective of immigrants who arrived during the four distinct waves of immigration. Individual and focused group interviews were conducted in English, Creole, and French with a purposive and snowball sample of 43 Haitian immigrants currently living in south Florida. Using a grounded theory approach, the analysis generated six categories related to the Haitian immigrant experience: orientation at time of arrival, establishment of social connections, issues of trust, generational effects, cultural constructs of social class, and perspectives on the help-seeking experience. Key findings emerged that identified the importance of social connections in Haitian help-seeking behaviors in the context of a complex Haitian social class construct imbedded in historical, political, and economic positioning. Specifically, across all immigration waves, regardless of social background--from the highly educated doctor who arrived in the 1950s to the rural peasant who arrived in the 1990s--Haitian immigrants identified an individual of Haitian descent residing in the United States on whom they relied for assistance in obtaining resources. This system of social connections reflected the social constructs of class existing in Haiti and remained a significant factor in Haitian immigrants' help-seeking behaviors during resettlement. / text

Doctor of Philosophy / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Briana S. Goff / Human sex trafficking is a complex and unique phenomenon involving the commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) of persons by means of force, fraud, or coercion. The purpose of this study was to investigate unique patterns of trauma exposure and biopsychosocial health among a sample of CSE survivors. Results from a latent profile analysis with 135 adults trafficked in the United States yielded three distinct survivor sub-groups: mildly distressed, moderately distressed, and severely distressed. The mildly distressed class (18.5%) was characterized by the lowest reports of trauma exposure and an absence of clinically significant psycho-social stress symptoms. The moderately distressed class (48.89%) endorsed comparatively medial levels of trauma exposure, as well as clinically significant disturbance in six domains of psycho-social health. The severely distressed class (32.59%) reported the highest degree of trauma exposure and exhibited clinically significant symptoms of pervasive psycho-social stress across all domains assessed. To better understand variation in CSE survivors’ engagement with formal support services, this study also examined differences in help-seeking attitudes and intentions between latent classes. Results indicated that compared to those in the mildly and moderately distressed classes, severely distressed survivors endorsed significantly more unfavorable attitudes toward seeking professional help, along with no intention to seek help from any source when facing a personal or emotional crisis. Findings from this study provide a snapshot of significant heterogeneity in trauma exposure and biopsychosocial health among CSE survivors, as well as associated differences in help-seeking attitudes and intentions. The identification of distinct survivor sub-groups in these and future analyses mark an important intermediate step toward developing empirically-testable support services that are specifically designed to meet the unique needs of CSE survivors.

The literature on the career development of First-Generation College Students of Color (FGCSC) lacks a focus on the career decision-making difficulties consequently from racial microaggressions, academic self-efficacy, academic stress, and mental well-being at PWIs. Furthermore, there is a lack of empirical studies related to FGCSC help-seeking behaviors for racial microaggressions and the utilization of university counseling and career services on these campuses. The following research questions guided this study: a) What is the relationship between help-seeking attitudes and behaviors and racial microaggressions, academic self-efficacy, academic stress, mental well-being, and career decision-making difficulties among first-generation college students of Color (FGCSC) attending PWIs? b) Can the help-seeking behaviors of (FGCSC) attending PWIs be predicted by age, gender, ethnicity, racial microaggressions, academic self-efficacy and stress, mental well-being, and career decision-making difficulties? FGCSC present distinct personal, social, emotional, academic, and cultural needs. The growth in racial microaggressions and racial insults manifested within PWIs requires an examination into how services are tailored within university counseling and career advising centers to meet these needs. Racial microaggressions can result in stress that negatively influences both mental well-being and career decision making. Thus, career and personal counseling services provided on college campuses should be able to help students combat and cope with these stressors. In addition, these services should provide culturally-informed counseling interventions to help FGCSC determine how skills, values, and interests align with a future job that fits their personality and cultural background. A need for more literature that examines the relationship between these variables will assist university counselors and career centers within predominantly White institutions with interventions for this special group of students. The stressors related to racial microaggressions may result in career decision-making difficulties that contribute to low self-efficacy that increase low retention rates and lack of matriculation. A better understanding of the relationships between racial microaggressions, mental well-being and career decision making can result in the tailoring of counseling and advising services on PWIs. Practitioners employed in counseling centers, advising offices, and career services must have a working knowledge of FGCSC experiences with racial microaggressions at the societal, institutional, interpersonal, and individual levels to deliver effective services.

In this qualitative research study, I share first-generation college students' help-seeking experiences with writing tasks and use an affective lens to investigate how first-generation students feel when navigating various help-seeking situations. Often, students' experiences and emotions highlight their commitments to independence. In this study, I found that students' feelings of insecurity and confidence both encouraged and discouraged help seeking with writing, that students expressed determination as a central affect when describing their commitment to independence, and that loneliness is a significant affect in regards to writing help seeking and independence. These findings provide writing center faculty and tutors and first-year composition instructors a framework for interpreting first-generation college students' expressions of confidence, insecurity, and determination. Using this framework, I give suggestions on effectively responding to the help seeking of first-generation students.

Lesbian intimate partner violence (IPV) is an understudied social and psychological problem in the United States. The purpose of this qualitative, comparative study was to understand any barriers of help-seeking behaviors for victims of lesbian IPV. The literature on lesbian IPV has not included the perspectives of both service provider and support person on why these barriers persist. Normative resource theory and the barriers model informed the study. Interviews were conducted with a sample of 8 providers and 5 support persons. Interviews were then transcribed and coded. The 7 themes that emerged among these 13 participants were an unawareness on how to get help, inability on the part of the victim to recognize abuse, lack of acknowledgement of abuse in the community, inadequate specialized training and policies to work with the lesbian community, no assurance of safety at the shelter, fear of disclosure of sexual orientation, and no confidence with system or service agency. All of these themes were identified as contributing factors that deterred lesbian IPV victims from seeking help. Although the findings are representative of a small sample, these findings can initiate positive social change by informing interventions which can bridge the gap between the lesbian IPV victim and the support services she needs.

People experiencing mental health illnesses such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who do not receive mental health treatment services (MHTS) are at a higher risk of committing crimes. The research problem of this study was to fill the gap in the literature concerning gender, sex at birth, and gender identity differences as predictors of attitudes toward perceived stigma in help-seeking behavior (HSB) and use of MHTS. The sample size included 5,000 participants in the de-identified secondary data set of students from 26 universities and colleges across the United States. The Healthy Minds Study collected these data in 2016-2017 using the Patient Health Questionnaire. To address the research questions guiding the study, one-way ANOVA was used to test for differences in groups based on sexual orientation and gender identity for measures of perception of stigma, use of MHTS, and HSB regarding receiving mental health services. Between groups, MANOVA was used to assess differences in groups based on gender identity and sexual orientation on a linear combination of the dependent measures of perception of stigma in use of MHTS and HSB. There were directional differences between groups based on independent variables gender and sexual orientation on measures of the dependent variables perception of stigma in use of MHTS and of HSB. However, a closer examination of the results indicated that the effect size associated with the directional differences was weak. The results from this study may help clinicians to identify treatment challenges related to biological sex and gender identity and help to influence future interventions to better accommodate the contemporary population of men and women experiencing symptoms of PTSD.