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College students' intentions to seek help for suicidal ideation: accounting for the help-negation effect
Elena S Yakunina1, James R Rogers, Charles A Waehler
1Department of Psychology, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-4310, USA. esy1@zips.uakron.edu
Abstract:
Prior research has identified a negative association between suicidal ideation and help-seeking, a phenomenon called "help-negation." Help-negation has been documented to occur for both professional and nonprofessional sources of help. In this study help-seeking attitudes, stigma concerns, and perceptions of social support were examined as possible mediators of help-negation. Data were collected from a nonclinical sample of college undergraduates at a midwestern university (N = 321). Findings provided partial support for the mediation hypotheses. Help-seeking attitudes and stigma were significant predictors of help-seeking intentions (β = .34 and β = -.17, p < .05, respectively), but did not mediate help-negation for professional sources. Perceptions of social support, on the other hand, fully mediated help-negation for nonprofessional sources (β = .27, p < .05).
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