The effectiveness of an educational psychotherapy presentation on Asians' therapy expectations and help-seeking attitudes was investigated. Subjects were foreign-born Asian university students. Compared to a non-Asian American normative sample, the Asian group demonstrated significantly less accurate expectations about therapy and less positive attitudes about seeking help for psychological problems. A psychotherapy presentation was used to modify expectations and attitudes. It consisted of an audiotaped lecture on therapist and client roles and the types of problems discussed in therapy. It also included a written transcript of therapist-client dialogues for subjects to read. The experimental group, which received the presentation, was compared to placebo control and delayed-treatment control groups. The psychotherapy presentation did not modify Asians' expectations or attitudes more than the control groups. Instead, all three groups showed improvement at posttest. Because there is a clear need to assess further the therapy expectations and attitudes of Asians, future research was recommended.

<p>Urinary incontinence is a prevalent condition; nevertheless few women seek professional help. One aim of this study was to investigate all women aged 18-70 years in a Swedish community regarding (a) the prevalence rate and risk factors of urine leakage and (b) the quality of life for women with and without urine leakage, for women with stress incontinence versus urge incontinence, and for women with urine leakage who had or had not sought help. A second aim was to study all women aged 18-46 years from the same population four years later regarding (a) the quality of life and natural history of urine leakage, (b) why some women with persistent urine leakage seek help and others do not, and (c) how they deal with their urine leakage.</p><p>Every fourth woman aged 18-70 years was found to have urine leakage. The number of women with urine leakage increased with increasing age, the number of deliveries, the presence of urinary tract infection, and the use of oestrogen substitutions. Women with urine leakage had a lower quality of life in all eight dimensions of the SF-36 as compared with women without urine leakage. Furthermore, in women with urge incontinence the quality of life was lower compared with women with stress incontinence in all dimensions of the SF-36. Women with urine leakage who had sought help had lower quality of life in seven of eight SF-36 dimensions as compared with women with urine leakage who had not sought help.</p><p>At the four-year follow-up the quality of life had deteriorated in five of eight SF-36 dimensions in women aged 18-46 years with persistent urine leakage as compared with women with persistent continence. The mean annual incidence and remission rates of urine leakage were on the same low level (4%). Most women with slight or moderate long-term urine leakage had not sought professional help, largely because they considered their leakage a minor problem. Pelvic floor exercises was the most commonly used management method for all participants.</p>

Urinary incontinence is a prevalent condition; nevertheless few women seek professional help. One aim of this study was to investigate all women aged 18-70 years in a Swedish community regarding (a) the prevalence rate and risk factors of urine leakage and (b) the quality of life for women with and without urine leakage, for women with stress incontinence versus urge incontinence, and for women with urine leakage who had or had not sought help. A second aim was to study all women aged 18-46 years from the same population four years later regarding (a) the quality of life and natural history of urine leakage, (b) why some women with persistent urine leakage seek help and others do not, and (c) how they deal with their urine leakage. Every fourth woman aged 18-70 years was found to have urine leakage. The number of women with urine leakage increased with increasing age, the number of deliveries, the presence of urinary tract infection, and the use of oestrogen substitutions. Women with urine leakage had a lower quality of life in all eight dimensions of the SF-36 as compared with women without urine leakage. Furthermore, in women with urge incontinence the quality of life was lower compared with women with stress incontinence in all dimensions of the SF-36. Women with urine leakage who had sought help had lower quality of life in seven of eight SF-36 dimensions as compared with women with urine leakage who had not sought help. At the four-year follow-up the quality of life had deteriorated in five of eight SF-36 dimensions in women aged 18-46 years with persistent urine leakage as compared with women with persistent continence. The mean annual incidence and remission rates of urine leakage were on the same low level (4%). Most women with slight or moderate long-term urine leakage had not sought professional help, largely because they considered their leakage a minor problem. Pelvic floor exercises was the most commonly used management method for all participants.

The purpose of this study was: (1) to investigate Kuwait University (KU) students' attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help; and (2) to investigate if family, friends, and societal support played a role in the student's decision to seek professional psychological help as measured by the Family, Friends, and Societal Support Scale (FFSS), which was developed by the author. Other assessment tools used in the study included: (1) Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (ATSPPHS) as developed by Fischer and Turner (1970); (2) Orientation Toward Utilization of Social Resources (OTUSR) as developed by Vaux, Burda, and Stewart (1986); (3) a modified Life Stress Events Scale (LSE) based on 18 items selected from the 43 items Social Readjustment Scale published by Holmes and Rahe (1967); and (4) Demographic Data Sheet (DDS). A total of 529 participants completed all five assessment tools. The results indicated that KU students have less favorable attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help than groups studied by other researchers. The results also supported previous research, which found females, in general, to have more favorable attitudes toward seeking professional help than males. Individuals who received previous counseling were more likely to have favorable attitudes toward seeking professional help than those who did not receive such help. Students who majored or minored in psychology had more favorable attitudes toward counseling than those who were not psychology majors or minors. The newly developed scale, FFSS, was an effective predictor of KU students' attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help and explained more variance in ATSPPHS scores than any other predictors used in the study. / Ph. D.

Intimate partner violence is one of the most common forms of violence againstwomen and is a widespread social problem that affects women among allsocioeconomic, religious and cultural groups. It is the social services responsibilityto meet these women and to especially consider the well-being of women who havebeen exposed to violence or abuse by a partner. Research within the field shows thatthere are several reasons why it may be difficult for abused women to break therelationship with the abuser. One reason is the feelings of guilt and shame thatcommonly submerge in an abusive relationship. Research suggests that women whohave been victims to domestic abuse may need informal support before they seekfurther support from professionals. How this first uncovering of the violence isreceived may be crucial to the woman's further actions and reasoning about hersituation. In today's society we live a big part of our lives online where we interactwith each other on a daily basis. Several people turn to digital platforms to receiveadvice and support for their real issues when they may feel like they can't turn topeople around them in real life. These digital platforms have been seen gettingincreasingly used by survivors of intimate partner violence to share theirexperiences as well as seek support and advice. This study is a netnographic study about women exposed to intimate partnerviolence and their help seeking behaviors on the Swedish online forums Flashbackand Familjeliv. The aim of this study is to explore the responses these women getwhen they seek support and advice about their situation online. The results of thisstudy shows that women who seek support online receive a wide range of responseswhere we could identify stigmatizing as well as destigmatizing elements. Thestigmatizing responses consisted mainly of victim blaming where the woman wastold she had herself to blame whereas the destigmatizing responses consisted ofemotional support and practical advice.