Latino and Latina Adolescents' Help‐seeking Behaviors and Attitudes Regarding Suicide Compared to Peers with Recent Suicidal Ideation

Although Latinas have consistently reported higher rates of suicidal behavior for the past 20 years (CDC, 1996), there is a dearth of information regarding their help‐seeking attitudes and behaviors when dealing with distress and suicide. Associations between adolescents' ideation and help‐seeking from adults were different for non‐Hispanic Whites and Latinos from 14 high schools (N = 4,983). Among females, ideators and Latinas reported lower levels of help‐seeking attitudes than nonideators and non‐Hispanic Whites. Males showed interaction effects of ideation by race/ethnicity on help‐seeking. Within sex by race/ethnicity, differences showed that while non‐Hispanic White students reported consistent differences between suicidal ideation and no reported suicidal ideation, Latinos were more similar between these groups, particularly with having support from friends and family to seek help from adults. Research should clarify how culture contributes to decreased help‐seeking norms among those with suicidal ideation.     

Self-report schedules for use in assessing the marital adjustment of abusive and nonabusive parents

Abstract

Abusive parents and nonabusive parents were compared on three self-report behavioral marital questionnaires. The questionnaires—the Marital Status Inventory, the Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test, and the Areas of Change Questionnaire—have been used in pre-post evaluations of treatment and in the discrimination of distressed from nondistressed marriages. The results indicated that both groups reported having only mildly distressed marital relationships. The report presents initial normative data on the questionnaires for abusive parents and nonabusive parents who were seeking help with child management problems.     

归因、自我效能和社会容认度对心理求助行为的影响

在江光荣心理求助行为的“阶段-决策模型”框架下,探查处于第三阶段的被试的求助行为,侧重研究⑴对心理问题的归因、⑵作为心理咨询当事人的自我效能和⑶心理求助行为的社会容认度这三个变量对实际求助行为的影响,同时探讨变量之间的作用机制。结果表明,这三个变量对求助行为均有预测作用。其中心理求助行为的社会容认度除了对求助行为有直接作用外,还以作为心理咨询当事人的自我效能为中介变量间接影响求助行为。整个模型对求助行为解释的变异量达到26％     

Attitudes towards psychological treatment among older Australians

Reasons behind older adults' under‐utilisation of mental health services are complex. Barriers to access to mental health services for this group include service access and availability, attitudes of medical and mental health professionals, and attitudes of older people themselves. This questionnaire‐based study sought to investigate variables that may influence attitudes towards psychological help seeking among a late mid‐age–young‐old Australian sample of 159 community‐dwelling adults. The results suggest that attitudes towards seeking psychological help in this population were relatively positive. In addition, >50% of participants in the sample indicated that they had sought treatment for emotional or psychological difficulties in the past, with the greatest proportion of those who sought help noting that it was for “family problems” (56%). The findings suggest that negative attitudes to help seeking in this age group may not be as pervasive as previously assumed, and that help‐seeking behaviours may be high among those with positive attitudes towards help seeking.     

Spouse similarities in personality traits for intra- and interethnic marriages in Israel

An abbreviated version of the Comrey Personality Scales (CPS) was administered to 220 Israeli couples, divided ethnically into endogamous Western, endogamous Eastern, and cross-ethnic Eastern x Western background. Two hypotheses were examined: (1) that cross-ethnic couples would show greater similarity in some personality traits than intra-ethnic marriages, and (2) that females and males married cross-ethnically would differ from same-sex, same-ethnicity individuals married within their own ethnic group in certain background and personality characteristics. It was found that cross-ethnic couples had, indeed, higher intra-couple correlations for Empathy than endogamous couples. Western women and Eastern men in interethnic marriages had higher mean scores for Activity and lower means for Conformity than those of same sex and ethnicity in endogamous marriages. Intermarrying Western wives were more extraverted while intermarrying Eastern men were more introverted. On the whole, interethnic marriages were found to be similar to Western marriages in educational level and several attributes of Western lifestyle.     

Miseries Suffered,Unvoiced, Unknown? Communication of Suicidal Intent by Men in “Rural” Queensland,Australia

It has long been argued that suicide prevention efforts in rural locations face not only structural barriers, such as a lack of accessible health care and specialized mental health services, but also a range of cultural barriers. A commonly discussed cultural factor that may contribute to higher rural suicide rates is low levels of help‐seeking behavior, which in turn act as a barrier to accessing and receiving care. However, the assumption that suicide by rural men is more likely to be accompanied by low help‐seeking behavior, relative to urban men, has not been well tested. Using data from the Queensland Suicide Register, this study evaluates one form of help‐seeking behavior—communication of suicidal intent—among men who died by suicide. Contrary to the expectation that suicide in rural areas would be associated with lower levels of help‐seeking behavior than suicide in urban areas, it was found that communication of suicidal intent was broadly comparable across rural and urban settings. The implications for suicide prevention policies and service delivery strategies are discussed.     

Help-Seeking Behaviors in Non-Offending Caregivers of Abused Children in the Philippines

The help-seeking process among non-offending caregivers (NOCs) of abused children particularly in the non-Western context has yet to be elucidated. The objective of the current study was to investigate what proportion of Filipino NOCs of abused children sought professional support services within 12 months following child abuse disclosure (T1) and at 12 months (T2) follow-up in the Philippines. Two further aims were to investigate NOCs’ preferred service providers and settings and to explore barriers to help-seeking. A comparison group of Filipino parents without an abused child were also recruited to compare preferences and potential barriers to help seeking for child and family problems. A total of 47 NOCs and 70 comparison parents/guardians completed questionnaires, which assessed help-seeking preferences and barriers as well as parental stress. The majority of NOCs reported seeking help, which was perceived to be helpful. Almost two thirds of NOCs indicated preference for in-person counseling relative to the comparison group of parents. The majority of NOCs preferred seeking help from social workers and psychologists. Almost one third of both parental samples reported being judged as an unfit parent as a key barrier to seeking help for family problems. The findings have implications for psychological and allied health service providers in facilitating the adjustment for families of recently abused children.     

Social and Emotional Loneliness Among Divorced and Married Men and Women: Comparing the Deficit and Cognitive Perspectives

Data from the 1998 survey “Divorce in the Netherlands” (N = 2,223) are used to analyze differences in loneliness among divorced and married men and women. The results indicate that it makes sense to distinguish social from emotional loneliness. This is consistent with the deficit perspective, which posits that the absence of specific types of relationships is associated with specific forms of loneliness. Whereas social loneliness is largely attributable to support network deficits, emotional loneliness is associated with the absence of a partner. In line with the cognitive perspective, the results show that greater insight into loneliness is obtained when discrepancies in relationships are considered. Divorcees who attach great importance to having a partner and people whose marriages are conflict ridden tend to have the highest levels of emotional loneliness. Our study shows that to explain loneliness, one should take not only characteristics of people's relationships into consideration, but also their relationship preferences. The investment hypothesis, which also follows from the cognitive perspective, is not supported by the data. There is no indication that those who attach greater importance to having a partner invest less in relationships with friends, relatives, and colleagues and therefore show high levels of social loneliness. Consistent gender differences are observed: Men, regardless of partner status, tend to attach greater importance to having a partner than do women, and they tend to have smaller support networks and higher levels of social loneliness. Among the divorced, men are more apt to suffer from emotional loneliness than are women.     

Verbal Strategies for Seeking Help in Organizations1

The verbal strategies used to frame requests for help are integral to the help-seeking process. Drawing on politeness theory, it was predicted that gender, power, and norms affect usage of verbal strategies in seeking help, and verbal strategies predict interpersonal outcomes. Two studies showed that: (a) individuals used more strategies under collectivistic than individualistic norms; (b) under individualistic norms, men used more strategies when seeking help upward, and women used more strategies when seeking help laterally; and (c) those who used more strategies provided higher quality information, and were perceived more favorably by others. These results suggest that verbal strategies not only reflect important relational and contextual factors, but also serve multiple social functions.     

Family- versus couple-initiated marriages in Turkey: Similarities and differences over the family life cycle

The present study aimed to investigate marital relationships of the Urban Turkish family. Questionnaires were given to both members of 430 couples at various stages of the marriage cycle. Information concerning demographic characteristics, spousal feelings, marital functioning, including division of labour and satisfaction with division of labour, decision-making, and conflict; and relationships with social network, including feelings for families of origin and frequency of interaction with families was obtained. Results revealed that in comparison to family-initiated marriages, couple-initiated marriages were more emotionally involving, less enmeshed with families, more egalitarian, and involved fewer conflicts. However, over successive stages of the marital cycle, conflict declined in family-initiated marriages and division of labour became less equalitarian in couple-initiated marriages. No differences between the two types of marriage emerged with respect to decision-making and conflict management style. Wives were reportedly more influential with respect to decisions concerning families and children than their husbands in both types of marriage. Couples at later stages of the marital cycle reported lower emotional involvement and less equalitarian division of labour. Relationships between educational level and various marital measures were also obtained. The results are discussed in relation to the possibly different marital schema entertained by men and women within the modernising context of Turkey and with respect to possibly different effects of modernization on different aspects of marraige.     

United States and Japanese college students' attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help

The purpose of the study was to find how nationality, sex, and past experience of seeking professional psychological services are related to attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Three hundred Japanese college students and 300 US college students responded to the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help (ATSPPH) questionnaire. The ATSPPH consists of four subscales: Need (recognition of need), Stigma Tolerance (the degree of tolerance against stigma associated with help‐seeking action), Openness (interpersonal openness), and Confidence (confidence in mental health professionals). As predicted, past experience of seeking professional psychological service and sex were important predictor variables of performance on the ATSPPH scales. Those who had past experience of seeking professional psychological help had more favourable attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help than those who never consulted psychological professionals. Similarly, in testing the past experience separately with the two nation groups, past experience with seeking professional psychological services was found to be a predictor of the overall attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help among Japanese and US participants. Furthermore, Japanese participants with past experience also showed greater recognition of need for professional psychological help and confidence in psychological health professions than Japanese without past experience. The degree of stigma tolerance associated with help‐seeking behaviour and the tendency of interpersonal openness, however, did not differ between Japanese participants with and without the past experience of seeking professional psychological services. The same results were also found among the US participants. In terms of sex as a predictor variable, females tended to have more positive attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help than males. There was a significant nationality by sex interaction effect. US females had significantly more favourable attitudes than the other three groups, indicating that there was sex difference in help‐seeking attitudes in the US group, but not in the Japanese group. If the sex variable is ignored, Japanese students have less favourable overall attitudes toward seeking professional psychological services than US students. Other results and limitations of the study are discussed.     

Barriers to condom use in primary and nonprimary relationships among Hispanic STD clinic patients

Some programs designed to reduce the spread of AIDS and other STDs encourage consistent condom use among sexually active, at-risk individuals. A random sample of 283 Hispanic men and women seeking services at a public STD clinic in New York City were surveyed in an examination of differences in their attitudinal patterns, normative beliefs, and practices related to condom use with primary and nonprimary sex partners. 60% of the participants were male. The group was of mean age 30.9 years, with 46% having graduated from high school. 44.5% were born in the US, although 73.8% had lived in mainland US for the previous ten years or longer. 52.7% were single, 19.8% married, and the remaining 27.5% were either divorced, separated, or widowed. Only 3.2% of men and women reported having same-sex relationships, although the authors suggest that the respondents may have underreported the extent of their bisexual and homosexual behavior. 58.3% of men and 53.3% of women reported having had a prior STD, 82.2% of men and 74.8% of women had experience using a condom, and 31.3% of men and 13.3% of women reported having nonprimary partners. Both the men and women report that they are more likely to use condoms in nonprimary than primary relationships and that they perceive fewer barriers to doing so. Issues related to trust and social acceptability are more salient in primary relationships. Interventions to promote condom use among Hispanics must acknowledge the different psychosocial influences upon condom use in different relationships and target the specific attitudinal and behavioral changes desired.     

The relationship between shame and perceived biological origins of mental illness among South Asian and white American young adults

Mental illness (MI) affects one in four people in their lifetime and a failure to seek help for MI can have grave consequences. To decrease stigma and increase help seeking, prior campaigns have promoted the biological origins of MI. Even though some research supports the efficacy of this approach, other research does not. We propose cultural differences as a partial explanation for these inconsistent results. The current study assessed ethnic differences in the relationship between perceived causes of MI, shame associated with MI and perceived family support for help seeking. White and South Asian American (SAA) undergraduate students completed an online survey (n = 177). Results indicated that SAAs were significantly more likely than whites to perceive character deficits as the cause of MI. Further, among those who had sought help for MI, ethnic differences emerged in perceptions of MI based on perceived cause. SAAs who believed that MI had biological origins perceived more shame and less family support for seeking help compared to SAAs who believed MI was due to character deficits. The converse was true for whites – those who believed that MI had biological origins perceived less shame and more family support for help seeking compared to whites who believed MI was due to character deficits. The results of the current study illuminate the role that culture plays in perceptions of MI. Further, these results have implications for interventions targeting South Asian populations and for mental health outreach in general.     

His and her marriage: A multivariate study of gender and marital satisfaction

This study examined gender differences in marital satisfaction using the multidimensional marital inventory ENRICH. Contrary to previous research, the results indicated that men are somewhat more satisfied with their marriages than women. The findings also suggest that religion is a more important part of the marriage for men, whereas women esposed egalitarian roles to a greater extent. A significant interaction was found between marital distress and gender on the Sexual Relationship, Communication, Parenting and Children, and Equalitarian Roles scales, indicating that these areas may be particularly important in distressed couples. The differences in husbands' and wives' marital satisfaction found in this study are consistent with research suggesting that men obtain greater mental health benefits from marriage than do women. The explanation of the obtained gender differences are discussed with regard to measurement issues, sampling procedures, and power and task inequities. Sampling and differences in marital tasks and power are cited as the best explanations of the findings.     

Men and fathers in therapy

This paper relates social scientific research on masculinity and fatherhood to the position of men and fathers in therapeutic settings. Common male pathways used for seeking help are described. The paper ends by exploring the implications of these patterns for couple and family work. Particular attention is paid to gender differences in the perception of male engagement in therapy.     

The Role of Nonperformance Factors on Job-Related Relocation Opportunities: A Field Study and Laboratory Experiment

Two studies examined the role of employee gender, marital type (single-earner, dual-earner), and parental status in understanding differential access to job opportunities requiring relocation, as well as possible perceptual processes underlying these effects. A large-scale field study (Study 1) found that married women and employees in dual-earner marriages were provided fewer relocation offers than married men and those in single-earner marriages. A laboratory experiment (Study 2) extended Study 1 by examining the perceptual process by which these nonperformance factors affected relocation opportunities. Again, married women and employees in dual-earner marriages received lower recommendation ratings for jobs requiring relocation compared to married men and single-earners, respectively. Further, decision-makers' perceptions of an applicant's willingness to relocate, family resistance to moving, and ease of adjustment to a geographic move partially mediated the relationship between these nonperformance factors and relocation opportunities. Implications for research and applied practice are discussed.     

Men,masculinity, and the contexts of help seeking

Research on men's help seeking yields strategies for enhancing men's use of mental and physical health resources. Analysis of the assumptions underlying existing theory and research also provides a context for evaluating the psychology of men and masculinity as an evolving area of social scientific inquiry. The authors identify several theoretical and methodological obstacles that limit understanding of the variable ways that men do or do not seek help from mental and physical health care professionals. A contextual framework is developed by exploring how the socialization and social construction of masculinities transact with social psychological processes common to a variety of potential help-seeking contexts. This approach begins to integrate the psychology of men and masculinity with theory and methodology from other disciplines and suggests innovative ways to facilitate adaptive help seeking.     

Help seeking for alcohol problems in a college population

Despite the availability of effective treatments for problem drinkers, only a minority seek professional assistance. The authors investigated the influences on help seeking for alcohol-related difficulties in two separate studies. In Study 1, 59 men and 74 women completed questionnaires regarding their alcohol use, related problems, readiness to change, and help-seeking interest. The authors also developed a measure of stigma related to alcohol help seeking. Problem recognition, anxiety symptoms, and stigma predicted a global rating of help-seeking. Students (22 men and 60 women) participated in Study 2, which incorporated a multi-item measure of help-seeking intentions as well as attitude and personality measures. Positive attitudes, less perceived stigma, and greater self-efficacy increased help seeking. The findings highlight the importance of both approach and avoidance factors that affect help-seeking decisions, and the authors suggest directions for further research.     

Personality influences in the stability of early (teen-age) marriage in the United States

Previous research indicated that similarities and differences in specific personality factors are associated with differences in marital stability. Most findings were based on assessments of personality after marriage, thus confounding the effects of marriage on personality. The findings reported here relate congruence between spouses’ personality assessed prior to marriage with the status of the marriage three to five years after marriage. Each partner in a group of 72 teenage couples completed the 16PF prior to obtaining approval to marry. These data were examined using intraclass and multivariate analyses. The findings indicate that hypothesized patterns of personality factors differentiated stable from unstable marriages.