Help-Seeking Behavior for Mental Health Concerns among Indian young adults

One in seven Indians suffer from mental illness. However, there exists a wide gap between the incidence of mental illness and the treatment thereof. This is attributable to the stigma against mental health concerns in Indian society (Böge et al., 2018; Gaiha et al., 2020). While there exists research on mental health stigma and its associations in the Indian context, the psychological variables that underlie the stigma of help-seeking behavior have not been thoroughly investigated. Further, amongst the existent literature that focuses on stigma and barriers to help-seeking behavior, majority has been conducted in Western contexts and prior to the COVID-19-pandemic, limiting their generalizability to a culturally unique South Asian context. This study assesses the relationship between Help-Seeking Behaviour and Perceived Public Stigma, Personal Stigma, Self-Stigma, Gender, Gender Conformity, and Patriarchal Belief System amongst urban Indian young adults. Additionally, it investigates the factors that facilitate seeking help from faith-based mental healthcare services. The study employs a quantitative, cross-sectional, and exploratory approach. A sample of N = 150 (age 18-25 years) was recruited via convenience snowball sampling and filled out an online survey. Results indicated that Self-Stigma and Gender are significant predictors of Help-Seeking Behavior. Gender Conformity and Patriarchal Belief System did not moderate the relationship between the predictor variables and Help-Seeking Behavior. Further, Religiosity was a significant predictor of utilizing faith-based services. ‘Sense of hope’ and ‘trusted sources of recommendation from friends/family’ were identified as the strongest motivators for utilizing faith-based services. Insights obtained from this study will inform future research and will aid in designing targeted interventions that tackle help-seeking barriers.