Stigma, Face Concerns, and Professional Help-Seeking Intentions Among Chinese Medical University Students: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63808/jmh.v2i1.369Keywords:
self-stigma; face concerns; help-seeking intentions; Chinese medical students; structural equation modelingAbstract
The need for seeking help in mental health among Chinese medical college students is still far from what was expected; however, culture has not yet been brought into the existing theories. Using structural equation model (SEM) for data analysis on the relationship among self-stigma, face-related anxiety, mental health literacy, confidence in counseling, counselor reliability, and motivation for seeking professional assistance among 423 Chinese medical students. The results showed that facial-related anxiety was an important cause of fear to seek help, after controlling for self-stigma. With a decline in self-stigma, the people’s understanding of their own psychology also diminished accordingly; this strengthened drive for help-seeking (accounting for 43.5 per cent). The self-stigma pathway was moderated through face-related concerns in multiple groups separately. Inhibitory effects of face-related anxieties on the relationship among self-stigma, fear of negative evaluation and seeking help were stronger in the high-face-concerns group than in the low-face-concerns group. Perceived counselor trustworthiness showed as an independent predictive factor for the motives of seeking support (β = 0.22; p<0.001).
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