Approximately 40% of youth experience psychological problems; however, less than half receive necessary services. Several help-seeking models suggest that for children to receive psychological care parents must: recognize a problem, decide to seek help, and select a service. The parent problem recognition stage has been largely overlooked in the literature and few studies have examined all stages of the process together. The current study aimed to fill gaps in the literature regarding parent problem recognition and explore the help-seeking process for child externalizing problems, anxiety, depression, and sleep difficulties. Data was collected an Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants were 219 parents of children ages 7 to 12 who provided information about help-seeking and child mental health symptoms. Rates of accurate parent problem recognition ranged from 37.6% (sleep) to 66.0% (externalizing concerns). Rates of help-seeking in the current study were low ranging from 42.6% (sleep) to 72.7% (depression) even when parents identified a problem for their child. The severity of the child’s problem and parent past experience with mental health predicted problem identification and help-seeking across most presenting concerns. Specialty mental health services were underutilized across problem areas with over 70% of parents indicating that they had or would seek help from their pediatrician and less than half indicating that they had or would seek help from a therapist or psychologist. Results support previous findings that child psychological problems are under-recognized and under-treated. Future research and clinical work is needed to close the gap between the need for services and service use.

One purpose of the dissertation was to determine what theoretical justification exists to support the description of problem recognition. Homeostatsis was found to be a well documented and accepted theory of tension reduction in both physiology and psychology. It was proposed as a proper theoretical foundation for problem recognition. It also implied that people develop styles as they repeatedly deal with similar problems. Another purpose of the dissertation was to develop a method for typifying consumers in the way they recognize problems. Scales were constructed to measure consumers' tendencies to recognize problems due to a change in one of their states. Three scales were developed: one to measure types sensitive to changes in the desired state, one to measure types sensitive to changes in the actual state, and a combined scale to measure tendencies to recognize problems due to changes in either state. The product category chosen to test the scales was clothing. The results indicated that all scales were extremely reliable and moderately valid.

Approximately 30% to 60% of children experience a behavioral health problem such as picky eating, toileting, or sleep difficulties; however, less than half of those individuals receive the necessary services to improve their symptoms and functioning. Examining the pathway through which children access behavioral health care is crucial to understanding the gap between the need for services and actual service use. Help-seeking process models suggest that for a child to receive care, caregivers must go through a series of linear stages: problem recognition, decision to seek help, and service selection. This help-seeking process has not been previously examined for sleep, picky eating, and toileting challenges, which leaves a gap in our knowledge about how children receive access to important behavioral health care. The current study aimed to fill gaps in the literature regarding help-seeking for behavioral health concerns. Survey data was collected through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants were 151 caregivers of children ages 5 to 10 years who provided information about help-seeking and child behavioral health symptoms. Rates of caregiver problem recognition for children who exhibited clinically significant concerns were 39% for sleep, 70% for picky eating, and 52% for toileting. When caregivers identified a problem, rates of help-seeking ranged from 53% (sleep) to 69% (toileting). The severity of the child’s problem predicted caregiver problem identification and help-seeking across all concerns. Caregiver past experience with mental health predicted problem identification and help-seeking for sleep and for picky eating. Family disorganization also predicted identification of picky eating problems. Caregivers demonstrated low knowledge of treatment options for behavioral health, and specialty behavioral health services were underutilized across problem areas with 69% to 75% of caregivers in the sample indicating that they had or would seek help from a pediatrician and only 11% to 19% indicating that they had or would seek help from a therapist or psychologist. Caregivers also reported low rates of pediatrician screening for these behavioral health concerns, and results suggest that caregivers are not fully satisfied with how pediatricians address their concerns. Overall, results support and add to the findings in the literature that suggest child behavioral health problems are under- recognized and under-treated. Future research is needed to close the gap between the need for services and service use.

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This study establishes a link between research on organizational source credibility and the effects of public information campaigns. Research has established that source credibility is one factor audiences evaluate when responding to messages and that credible information sources enhance message acceptance, while untrustworthy sources can interfere with desired message effects. Although source credibility studies have typically focused on the person delivering a message, recent studies indicate that audience perceptions of the organization sponsoring a message has a direct effect on message acceptance as well. Additionally, a few studies indicate that non-profit sources of health information are viewed as more credible, while such messages presented by for-profit organizations are less effective. This study uses an experimental procedure to investigate the relationship between organizational status, source credibility, and two possible effects of public service messages, information seeking and behavioral intent. Based on previous findings, the study hypothesized that the non-profit source would berated as more credible and that as the audiences' perception of source credibility increases so would their willingness to seek additional information or perform the advocated behaviors. Findings indicate, however, that organizational status does not have a significant effect on perceptions of source credibility. Nor does it significantly influence message evaluation, information seeking, or behavioral intent. As predicted, there was a positive correlation between source credibility, message credibility, problem recognition, personal relevance, information seeking, and behavioral intent. The results also indicate that information seeking positively predicts behavioral intent.

No description available.