Improving Help-Seeking in Distressed Young Adults: How Does Gender Matter? Insights from a Pilot Study

Abstract

While considerable research exists on interventions to enhance help-seeking rates and reduce treatment gap for common mental health concerns, there remains a scarcity of literature examining the influence of gender in response to such interventions. This paper aimed to examine gender differences/similarities observed while implementing a help-seeking intervention for distressed non-treatment-seeking young adults. Amongst those who indicated an expression of interest, about one-third were men, and two-third were women. The intervention was delivered over eight weeks. Distress, barriers, inclination to seek help and help-seeking from professional sources were assessed at baseline, post and follow-up. Though barriers were significantly higher in women at baseline, there was no difference on distress or help-seeking inclination. Both groups equally initiated and engaged with the intervention and exhibited a significant reduction in barriers, distress and improvement in help-seeking inclination. Findings highlight the need for research on approaches to improve the uptake of help-seeking interventions for common mental health concerns in non-treatment-seeking distressed young men.

Keywords

• help-seeking
• gender differences
• intervention
• young adults