ArticleBMC psychology2023
The role of psychological distress, stigma and coping strategies on help-seeking intentions in a sample of Italian college students.
Article in BMC psychology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Psychological distress among nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic: a hybrid concept analysis.BMC psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Mental health, coping strategies and help-seeking behaviours among women petty traders in Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria: a cross-sectional survey.BMC women's health · 2026Article
- Understanding the role of intersectional identity constructs on psychological well-being of Latino men who have sex with men (LMSM) in San Diego, California: A cross-sectional analysis of the NEXUS study.SSM. Mental health · 2026Article
- Exploring the lived experiences and coping strategies of mental health caregivers in Ethiopia: implications for supportive interventions.International journal of mental health systems · 2026Article
- Examining the multidimensional structure of stress among international medical students: a construct-based approach.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Psychological and religious predictors of help seeking attitudes among university students under perceived stress.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Understanding psychological help-seeking attitudes among individuals with sports injuries: the role of psychological risk and protective factors.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Embarrassment in consumer help-seeking: how power distance belief shapes service experiences.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Lived experiences of Ghanaian community psychiatric nurses resilience strategies in combating stigma: an interpretive phenomenology.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Asian cultural values and help-seeking: a cross-sectional study on compulsive sexual behavior.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Approaching Suffering in Young University Students, New Challenge for a Compassionate University: A Qualitative Study of Undergraduate Nursing Students.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Psychometric assessment of the Persian adaptation of the attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help scale-short form.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) on Psychological Distress among Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Role of Problem-Solving Appraisal.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Gender differences in psychological help-seeking attitudes: a case in Türkiye.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Article
- The challenges of mental health in Chilean university students.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMental health issues are common among university students, but the latter are unlikely to seek professional help even when mental health services are available. Coping strategies, stigma and psychological distress are often considered as factors that can affect help-seeking intentions in university students.
methodsThis study aimed to determine the role of coping strategies, stigma and psychological distress on the intentions to seek professional help for psychological problems. All students (N = 13,886) from an Italian medium-sized university were asked to participate in a multidimensional online survey and 3754 (27.1%) agreed to participate. A Structural Equation Modelling approach was applied to explore the simultaneous direct and indirect effects of distress, stigma and coping strategies on professional help-seeking intentions.
resultsResults showed that students were not very likely to seek professional help and, through the Structural Equation Model, psychological distress was found to be positively correlated with coping strategies, which in turn was negatively associated with the stigma of seeking help. The latter was negatively associated with professional help-seeking intentions. These effects suggest that students with significant psychological distress use coping strategies to face the stigma of seeking help: the lower the stigma of seeking help, the higher the chance of developing intentions to seek professional help.
conclusionsThis study suggests the importance of implementing programs to encourage college students to seek help, including measures that foster a stigma-free environment, reduce psychological distress and promote the use of adaptive coping strategies. Interventions should be focused firstly on self-stigma and secondly on perceived stigma, taking into consideration the level of psychological distress and social stereotypes associated with mental disorders and help seeking behaviours. Programs about coping are also essential and should focus on promoting emotion-focused strategies and problem-focused strategies.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.