The Relationship Between Mental Health Literacy and Attitude towards Seeking Professional Psychological Help in Adolescents

Mental health problems in adolescence have a high prevalence and students are also affected by these problems as an active segment of society. In this context, mental health literacy and seeking professional psychological help are important components in the prevention, diagnosis, and timely treatment of mental disorders. the present study aims to examine the relationship between mental health literacy and attitude towards seeking professional psychological help in high school students of Amol City during the academic year 2022-2023.

This is a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study conducted on high school students of Amol City during the academic year 2022-2023. With multi-stage random sampling, 416 students participated in the research, and considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 357 were analyzed. Data were collected using the demographic and educational form, mental health literacy scale (MHLS), and short form of attitude towards seeking professional psychological help scale (ATSPPH-S). Data analysis was performed using SPSS V22, employing descriptive statistics tests, univariate and multiple generalized linear regression models.

In this study, the mean age of the participants was 16.62±0.645 years and 52.4% of them were males. Also, most of them were in the 11th grade and studying technical and professional fields. The results of the study showed that the average mental health literacy and attitude towards seeking professional psychological help in students were 78.32±9.17 and 15.70±4.31 respectively which were almost in the middle range. The ability to identify mental disorders had the highest average (23.34) and the awareness of risk factors had the lowest average (5.12) among the components of mental health literacy. The result of univariate generalized linear regression indicated that there was a significant relationship between attitude towards seeking professional psychological help and students' mental health literacy (P<0.05). Moreover, multiple generalized linear regression’s results showed that attitude towards seeking professional psychological help, gender and mothers' education had a significant relationship with students' mental health literacy(P<0.05). Other demographic and educational variables had no significant relationship with mental health literacy(P<0.05).

Considering the direct and meaningful relationship between mental health literacy and attitude towards seeking professional psychological help in students, it is suggested that managers and educational and health officials make decisions to improve the mental health literacy of students. This can increase their willingness to seek psychological support when necessary. It is also important to create suitable conditions for training and improving the mental health literacy of the parents of students so that they can play an effective role in improving the mental health of themselves and their children.