著者

ISHAKU Utek Grace MATSUMOTO Mariko

出版者

名古屋大学大学院教育発達科学研究科

雑誌

名古屋大学大学院教育発達科学研究科紀要. 心理発達科学 (ISSN:13461729)

巻号頁・発行日

no.65, pp.1-20, 2018-12-28

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The problem of untreated mental disorders is serious and appears to be worsening in university student populations, especially in developing countries. Although resources are considerably scarce in low-income societies, there appear to be other challenges to mental health help-seeking on university campuses. The present study employed face-to-face semi-structured interviews to explore the array of factors that impede and promote help-seeking behavior among university students in Nigeria. The participants were 16 mentally distressed students at a public university in the central region of Nigeria. The interview schedule addressed the key study variables as well as the students' perceptions of their current mental state, treatment need, and intentions to seek help. The collated data revealed that all the participants were either moderately or severely mentally distressed. Even though the majority of the students (94%) were willing to seek help for a mental disorder, only 50% indicated that they currently need help for their mental distress. Of the latter, only about 13% had initiated actual attempts to seek professional guidance. Qualitative content analysis of the interview transcripts highlighted three major barriers to help-seeking, namely: individual factors, confidentiality issues, and institutional inadequacies. Similarly, three sets of support were relevant for facilitating help-seeking including intrapersonal support, interpersonal support and institutional support. Interpreting these findings in accordance with the ecological systems theory suggested that the barriers and facilitators to mental health help-seeking are multifaceted and encompass individual, social and institutional domains. Interventions targeting the micro and macro level barriers in university and support for students' help-seeking needs through a top-down strategy which prioritizes the provision of better mental health infrastructure, adequate number of professionals, effective mental health policies, and gatekeeper training for members of the university community are potentially beneficial for improving treatment rates among students in developing countries.