Mental health of young Brazilians: Barriers to professional help-seeking
Open accessAbstract
The present study investigated the perception of young Brazilians of professional help and barriers to seeking mental health services. A total of the 1,030 questionnaires were administered to young people aged 8-21 years of both genders attending public and private school or who had received or were receiving treatement at mental health facilities in three Brazilian cities. The data were evaluated using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and comparison between means. The results showed fear of stigmatization as a major barrier to seeking mental health treatment, exerting greater impact than that of structural barriers. Regional differences influenced their perception of the treatment. Having undergone previous mental health treatment was found to be related to a greater perception of the positive effects of the treatment and the structural barriers to accessing care services. It was found that the onset of mental disorders usually occurs during early adolescence. School-related issues, anxiety, fear, and depression were the most common reasons for mental health treatment seeking among young people.
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Reasons for non-access include low mental health literacy and not recognizing a need for treatment, high cost of treatment, low availability, and attitudinal barriers such as perceived stigma.
“this is because they have low mental health literacy and do not recognize a need for treatment [7], but also because of the high cost of treatment, low availability, or attitudinal barriers, such as perceived stigma [8,9].”
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- Authors
- FUKUDA, C. C., PENSO, M. A., AMPARO, D. M. D., ALMEIDA, B. C. D., & MORAIS, C. D. A.
- Affiliations
- Universidade Católica de Brasília (BR)
- Universidade de Brasília (BR)
- Corresponding author
- FUKUDA, Cláudia Cristina
- Venue
- Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas)
- Publisher
- FapUNIFESP (SciELO)
- Published
- 2016-06
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 355-365
- ISSN
- 0103-166X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2344547215
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 0.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Americanae (AECID Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Americanae (AECID Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Redalyc (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychology and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- help-seeking barriers, mental health services, youth, structural barriers, regional variation, adolescents, anxiety, depression, school problems, Brazil
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