Attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help among Chinese pregnant women: A cross-sectional study

There exists a gap between the high prevalence of mental health problems and negative attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help among Chinese pregnant women. This study aimed to investigate the attitudes and factors toward seeking professional psychological help among Chinese pregnant women to provide some suggestions for improving pregnant women's psychological help-seeking behaviors.

A total of 1024 pregnant women were recruited. The Chinese version of the Attitude Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (ATSPPH) was used to assess the attitudes toward professional psychological help-seeking. Demographic and socio-psychological factors were collected by self-developed questionnaire, Perceived Social Support Scale, Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Scale.

1006 pregnant women were included in the final analysis. Only 3.7 % of participants chose professionals as their first choice for psychological help-seeking. The attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help were relatively positive, with the highest score of stigma tolerance among four subscales in ATSPPH. Education level, perceived social support, and positive coping style had a positive predictive effect on the four subscales of ATSPPH. Women with prenatal depressive symptoms had a lower score in the subscales of recognition of need for psychotherapeutic help and confidence in mental health practitioner; women with higher scores of negative coping style had a lower score in the subscales of stigma tolerance and interpersonal openness. History of professional psychological help-seeking behaviors was only associated with the subscale of recognition of need for psychotherapeutic help; Maternal age was only associated with the subscale of interpersonal openness.

The attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help were relatively positive among Chinese pregnant women, and stigma tolerance was the significant barrier to professional psychological help-seeking. More attention should be paid to those women with older age, negative coping style, and women with prenatal depressive symptoms.