Barriers to support: a qualitative exploration into the help-seeking and avoidance factors of young adults
Abstract
The current research explores young adults’ beliefs, awareness and understanding surrounding help-seeking behaviour in relation to barriers preventing access to counselling support. The literature suggests that several barriers, such as a lack of awareness, stigma and gender roles, will have a negative influence on help-seeking. To complement and expand on the substantial body of quantitative research on help-seeking, the present research undertook a qualitative, phenomenological study, in order to explore meaning and understanding in relation to help-seeking behaviours. The sample consisted of six college psychology students, who participated in one-to-one semi-structured interviews. Discourse analysis was used to analyse the interview transcripts. The results suggested gender roles, awareness and perception of help, social and cultural expectations/norms, and risk of stigma and rejection, as the significant barriers to help-seeking behaviour. It is suggested that future research could focus on how to reduce these barriers, thus improving help-seeking opportunities for young adults.
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Prior research on a help request platform for programming noted that only one third of the students who open up a help request dialog end up writing a help request, and that even the prompts used in the help request dialog can influence whether a help request gets sent.
“Prior research on a help request platform for programming noted that only one third of the students who open up a help request dialog end up writing a help request, and that even the prompts used in the help request dialog can influence whether a help request gets sent [77].”
From Exploring the Responses of Large Language Models to Beginner Programmers’ Help Requests (2023) · cites this paper as [77]
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- Authors
- Seamark, D., & Gabriel, L.
- Affiliations
- York College (GB)
- York St John University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Seamark, Daniel
- ORCID
- Gabriel, Lynne
- Venue
- British Journal of Guidance & Counselling
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2016-08-06
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 120-131
- ISSN
- 0306-9885 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-3534
- OpenAlex
- W2500204466
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 29
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 2.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- British Journal of Guidance and Counselling (publishedVersion)
- Research at York St John (York St John University) (acceptedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Roles and Identity Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychology and Mental Health
- Keywords
- help-seeking, help-seeking barriers, young adults, stigma, gender roles, fear of rejection
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