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Chinese University Students’ Perspectives on Help-Seeking and Mental Health Counseling Ning, Xuan; Wong, Pui-Hing; Huang, Silang; Fu, Yina; Gong, Xiaojie; Zhang, Lizeng; Hilario, Carla Theresa; Fung, Po-Lun; Yu, Miao; Poon, Kwong-Lai; et al.

Abstract

Psychological distress and mental illness have become increasingly pervasive among Chinese university students. However, many university students who need mental health treatment or psychological support do not actively seek help from professional counselors or service providers, which could lead to poor mental health outcomes. To promote help-seeking, we undertook a qualitative study to understand Chinese university students’ perspectives on help-seeking and mental health counseling. We conducted 13 focus group interviews with students in six universities in Jinan, China, and altogether 91 (62%) female students, and 56 (38%) male students participated in the study. Our results indicate that students’ misconception and distrust of on-campus counseling, stigma of mental illness, low mental health literacy, and hard-to-access mental health services are the major barriers that impede students help-seeking behaviors. Internal struggles and systematic and organizational barriers are identified to shed light on future work to promote mental health literacy among Chinese university students.

Item Metadata

Title
Chinese University Students’ Perspectives on Help-Seeking and Mental Health Counseling
Creator
Ning, Xuan; Wong, Pui-Hing; Huang, Silang; Fu, Yina; Gong, Xiaojie; Zhang, Lizeng; Hilario, Carla Theresa; Fung, Po-Lun; Yu, Miao; Poon, Kwong-Lai; Cheng, Shengli; Gao, Jianguo; Jia, Cun-Xian
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Date Issued
2022-07-06
Description
Psychological distress and mental illness have become increasingly pervasive among Chinese university students. However, many university students who need mental health treatment or psychological support do not actively seek help from professional counselors or service providers, which could lead to poor mental health outcomes. To promote help-seeking, we undertook a qualitative study to understand Chinese university students’ perspectives on help-seeking and mental health counseling. We conducted 13 focus group interviews with students in six universities in Jinan, China, and altogether 91 (62%) female students, and 56 (38%) male students participated in the study. Our results indicate that students’ misconception and distrust of on-campus counseling, stigma of mental illness, low mental health literacy, and hard-to-access mental health services are the major barriers that impede students help-seeking behaviors. Internal struggles and systematic and organizational barriers are identified to shed light on future work to promote mental health literacy among Chinese university students.
Subject
Chinese university students; help-seeking; mental health; mental health counseling
Genre
Article
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2023-01-17
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
CC BY 4.0
DOI
10.14288/1.0423088
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/83653
Affiliation
Applied Science, Faculty of; Non UBC; Nursing, School of
Citation
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19 (14): 8259 (2022)
Publisher DOI
10.3390/ijerph19148259
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty; Researcher
Rights URI
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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CC BY 4.0