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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 159 (2014) 610 – 614

WCPCG 2014

An Exploratory Study of Adolescent’s Help-Seeking Sources

Firdevs Savi Cakara*, Sevil Savib,
a
Assistance Professor,Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Faculty of Education Department of Psychological Counseling and
Guidance.Burdur.Turkey
b
Middlesex University. London. England

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the help seeking sources of adolescents. The corelational survey method was employed in
this study. The participants of the study consist of 252 high-school students, 132(%52,4) female, 120(%47,6) male. In the study,
General Help-Seeking Questionnaire were used as data collection tool and the scale was checked in terms of its Turkish
psychometric properties and factor structure of the scale. Chi-square test and descriptive statistics are were made for data analysis
of the research. As a consequence, it was determined that the proportions of adolescents in receiving help from informal sources
are much higher from professional sources. In addition, there is a significant relationship between the sources to which the
adolescents refer for psychological help and gender.
© 2014 The
© 2014 The Authors.
Authors. Published
Published by
byElsevier
ElsevierLtd.
Ltd.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Peer-review under responsibility of the Academic World Education and Research Center.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Academic World Education and Research Center.
Keywords: Adolescents, Help-Seeking, Sources of Help-Seeking

1. Main text

Puberty is a risky period in terms of subjective well-being and it is important for adolescents to reach the efficient
psychological sources of help when they are in need. It is a fragile period for its being the inception of mental illness
due to the fact that as well as a series of biological, interpersonal, cognitive and environmental changes experienced,
the number of stressful life events increases (Schoner-Reichl & Muller, 1996). It is agreed that seeking for proper
psychological help has a negative effect on social and emotinal problems and personal psychological stress (Tracey,
Sherry & Keitel, 1986). Help can be sought from a diversity of sources varying in their level of formality. Informal
help-seeking is from informal social relationships, such as friends and family. Formal help-seeking is from

* Firdevs Savi Cakar. Tel.: +90 2482134006,

E-mail address: [email protected]

1877-0428 © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Academic World Education and Research Center.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.434
 Firdevs Savi Cakar and Sevil Savi / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 159 (2014) 610 – 614 611

professional sources of help; that is, professionals who have a recognised role and appropriate training in providing
help and advice, such as mental health and health professionals, teachers, youth workers, and clergy. Increasingly,
however, help can be sought from sources that do not involve direct contact with other people, such as the internet
(Rickwood, et al., 2005). Seeking for professional psychological help is the effort of a person to look for
professional psychological help intended for the solution of problems in emotional, social, interpersonal and so on in
psychological content (Atkinson & Gim 1989; Ozbay, 1996). The act of seeking for help has a highly harmonising
function in the course of life (Lee, 1999), and as a coping method (Frydenberg & Lewis, 1993; Rickwood, et al.,
2005), it is a significant factor affecting the individuals’ mental health and subjective well-being (Rickwood, et al.,
2005). Seeking for help from a proffesional source or from the person facilitating the access to professional
psychological help has an effect that reduces and/or eliminates the risk factors. Seeking for professional help is
considered as an important protective factor against various mental problems including the risk factors for suicide
(Martin, 2002). Although the researches carried out demonstrate that adolescents experience psychological problems
and need help, it is stated that they receive far less mental helth services (Wu et al., 2001) and they are a resistant
group for seeking help (Wilson & Deane, 2002). Hence, effective psychological help to be provided for adoloscents
both is of importance for developmental respect and is very significant in terms of solving the problems experienced
in a sound way and of increasing their subjective well-being. Accordingly, it seems important examine who the
adoloscents receive help from and why they do not head towards professional help.

2. Method

The corelational survey method was employed in this study.

2.1.Participants

The sample consisted of 252 adolescents high-school students, including 132 females (%52,4) and 120 males
(%47,6), aged from 15 to 18 years old (M= 16,3, SD=.70). They were randomly selected from three high schools.

2.2. Instruments

In the study, General Help-Seeking Questionnaire and Information Sheet were used as data collection tools.

x General Help-Seeking Questionnaire (GHSQ): Future help-seeking intentions are measured by listing a
number of potential help sources and asking participants to indicate how likely it is that they would seek
help from that source for a specified problem on a 7-point scale ranging from no intention to seek help to a
very high likelihood of seeking help. Help-seeking intentions can be reported as three sub-scales: level of
intention for seeking informal help; level of intention for seeking formal help; and level of intention to seek
help from no-one. However, information for individual sources of help may also be of interest. The
reliability was assessed with Cronbach’s alpha as .85, test-retest reliability was assessed over a three-week
period as .92 (Wilson, Deane, & Ciarroch, 2005). Within the scope of this study, the scale was checked in
terms of its Turkish psychometric properties and factor structure of the scale. The participants of the study
consist of 198 high-school students, 104 female (% 52,5) male 94 (% 47,5) and it was accepted to be three
sub-factors. The correlation between the scores in language equivalance study was determined as .91;
Cronbach’s alpha for the whole of the scale as .72; and test-retest reliability as .92.

x Information Sheet: A brief questionnaire was prepared for this study which asked adolescents to supply
their gender, age.

2.3. Data analysis

In this study, Chi-square test and descriptive statistics are were made for data analysis of the research.
612 Firdevs Savi Cakar and Sevil Savi / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 159 (2014) 610 – 614

3. Results

3.1. To examine the help seeking sources of adolescents

Preferences of females and males regarding the sources of help, and results of the Chi-square test are provided in
Table-1.

If you were having a personal or emotional problem, how likely is it that you would seek help from each of the
following sources?

The sources of help-seeking Gender Low Moderate High Total Chi-Square p

Girl n (%) 26(5,3) 11(45,8) 95(52,5) 132(52,4)

Friend
(not related to you) ,576 ,75
Boy n ( %) 21(44,7) 13(54,2) 86(47,5) 120(47,6)
Mother
Girl n (%) 40(45,5) 5(22,7) 87(61,3) 132(52,4)
13,9 ,001
Boy n ( %) 48(54,5) 17(77,3) 55(38,7) 120(47,6)
Father
Girl n (%) 65(52,8) 15(32,6) 52(62,7) 132(52,4)
10,7 ,005
Boy n ( %) 58(47,2) 31(67,4) 31(37,3) 120(47,6)
Other relative / family
Girl n (%) 52(50,5) 40(70,2) 40(43,5) 132(52,4)
member
10,30 ,006
Boy n ( %) 51(49,5) 17(29,8) 52(56,5) 120(47,6)
Mental health Professional
Girl n (%) 68(42,0) 23()79.3 41(67,2) 132(52,4)
(e.g., school counsellor,
psychologist, psychiatrist 20,84 ,000
Boy n ( %) 94(58,0) 6(20,7) 20(32,8) 120(47,6)

Girl n (%) 66(47,1) 53(66.3) 13(40.6) 132(52,4)

Doctor
9.48 ,009
Boy n ( %) 74(52,9) 27(33,8) 19(59,4) 120(47,6)
Teacher (Year co-
Girl n (%) 64(45,4) 41(65,1) 27(56,3) 132(52,4)
ordinator, classroom
7,12 ,02
teacher, principal…)
Boy n ( %) 77(54,6) 22(34,9) 21(43,8) 120(47,6)
Information from an Girl n (%) 49(50,5) 57(57,6) 26(46,4) 132(52,4)
internet web site 2,002 ,368
Boy n ( %) 48(49,5) 42(42,4) 30(53,6) 120(47,6)
Someone else not listed
Girl n (%) 106(50,23) 11(84,6) 15(53,6) 132(52,4)
above (please describe
6,91 ,075
who this was).
Boy n ( %) 105(49,77) 2(15,4) 13(46,4) 120(47,6)

Girl n (%) 76(50,3) 29(65,9) 27(47,4) 132(52,4)

I would not seek help from
anyone 4,05 ,132
Boy n ( %) 75(49,7) 15(34,1) 30(52,6) 120(47,6)
*P<.05 ** p<.01 *** p<.001

As is seen in Table 1, in adolescents’ preferences regarding their sources of help, the proportions of males and
females in receiving help from friend (not related to you) and from mother are much higher, while it was established
that the proportions in receiving help from father, other relative/family member, mental health professional (e.g.,
school counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist), teacher (year co-ordinator, classroom teacher, principal), doctor,
information from an internet web site, someone else not listed above (please describe who this was), I would not
seek help from anyone are low. When it was examined whether there is difference concerning gender, on the other
hand, it was found that proportion of receiving help from mother is higher in females than males, but receiving help
 Firdevs Savi Cakar and Sevil Savi / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 159 (2014) 610 – 614 613

from father and other relative/family member is higher in males in comparison with females. Receiving help from
mental health professional (e.g., school counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist), doctor and teacher was discovered to
be lower in males when compared to females. In the Chi-square test carried out, it is seen that this difference
between males and females was meaningful. As a consequence, it was determined that the proportions of
adolescents in receiving help from informal social relationships such as friends and family as the sources of help are
much higher, while the proportions in receiving help from professional sources such as mental health and health
professionals, teachers, youth workers, and clergy are lower. In addition, there is a significant relationship between
the sources to which the adolescents refer for psychological help and gender.

3. Discussion

The purpose of this study was to explore the help seeking sources of adolescents. The research results show
parallelism with the results of the researches in literature, Accordingly, only a small number of adolescents head
towards seeking for psychological help for mental problems, while it was observed that they rarely refer to formal
sources (Whitaker et al., 1990), first they refer to informal sources (Wilson et al., 2005; Erkan, et al., 2012), and
they generally prefer family members and friends (Boldero & Fallon, 1995; Setivan, 2006). It is reported in some
studies that of the informal sources, adolescents primarily prefer their friends and mothers (Ashley & Foshee, 2005;
Hunter et al., 2004). Increasingly, help can be sought from sources that do not involve direct contact with other
people, such as the internet (Rickwood, et al., 2005). The other result, there is a relationship between gender and
psychological sources of help. Females are more prone to receiving help than males. On the other hand, another
discovery of the research is that proportions related to adolescents’ referring to informal sources as sources of help
are higher, while the proportions in receiving help from formal sources are lower. This result is supported by the
results of the other researches (Rickwood, et al., 2005). In conclusion this research, when considered, emphasizes
that the act of seeking for psychological help in adolescents in Turkey should be studied in a more comprehensive
way with the new studies to be carried out in theoretical framework and the factors as to seeking for help be
revealed.

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