Influencing factors of attitudes toward seeking professional help for mental illness among korean adults
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Identifying predictors of psychological help-seeking attitudes is essential to improve access to needed mental health services. We investigated factors - particularly Big Five personality traits - that affect attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help for mental illness among Korean adults. METHODS: A total of 654 participants aged 15-54 years were recruited through an online panel survey. Help-seeking attitudes for mental illness were measured by the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (ATSPPH), and personality traits were measured by the Big Five Personality Inventory-10. RESULTS: Multivariate analyses showed that female gender, history of psychiatric diagnosis, agreeableness and openness to experience were significantly associated with positive attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help for mental illness. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that specific personality traits should be considered when developing strategies to promote positive attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Further research using a representative community sample is needed to generalize our findings.
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Previous research has shown that personality traits such as agreeableness and conscientiousness may also influence help-seeking attitudes.
“Previous research has shown that personality traits such as agreeableness (Park et al., 2018) and conscientiousness (Schomerus et al., 2013) may also influence help-seeking attitudes.”
From Predictors of acceptability and engagement in a self-guided online program for depression and anxiety (2021) · cites this paper as Park et al., 2018
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- Authors
- Park, S., Jeon, M., Lee, Y., Ko, Y.-M., & Kim, C. E.
- Affiliations
- National Center for Mental Health (KR)
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Kim, Chul Eung
- Venue
- International Journal of Social Psychiatry
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2018-03-08
- Volume
- 64
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 286-292
- ISSN
- 0020-7640 (ISSN-L)
- 1741-2854
- OpenAlex
- W2790857375
- Cited by
- 20
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 2.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- International Journal of Social Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Center for Mental Health (R2017-A)
- 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 attitudes, mental illness, professional psychological help, Big Five personality traits, agreeableness, openness to experience, gender differences, history of psychiatric diagnosis, access to mental health care, Korean adults
- MeSH terms
- Help-Seeking Behavior, Adolescent, Adult, Mental Disorders, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Health Services, Middle Aged, Patient Acceptance of Health Care, Personality Inventory, Surveys and Questionnaires, Multivariate Analysis, Linear Models, Young Adult, Republic of Korea
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