Barriers to Seek Professional Help for Mental Health Scale: Development and Psychometric Validation

Mental health conditions are highly prevalent, and both supply- and demand-side factors drive a high treatment gap. There is a dearth of socio-culturally appropriate measures to assess barriers to professional help-seeking in distressed non-treatment seekers. This study aimed to develop and validate the Barriers to Seek Professional Help for Mental Health Scale for distressed, non-treatment-seeking young adults experiencing common mental health concerns in the Indian context.

The study was conducted in three phases: Phase I: development of initial measure; Phase II: scale try-out (N = 190); and Phase III: validating the factor structure (N = 172). Distressed, non-treatment-seeking young adults (20-35 years old) were recruited for the present study. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to identify the factor structure, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to validate it.

EFA showed that a five-factor structure best fits the data, namely, stigma and minimization, instrumental barriers, problem perception, self-efficacy in service utilization, and negative service expectancies. CFA revealed that the model was a reasonably good fit. The scale was finalized into a 24-item measure. Internal consistency reliabilities of the scale and subscales were satisfactory. Correlation patterns of barriers subscales with help negation, help-seeking inclination, and distress support its convergent validity.

The Barriers to Seek Professional Help for Mental Health Scale was developed, and preliminary evidence supports its reliability, construct, and convergent validity. The scale could prove valuable for assessing barriers to seeking professional help for mental health in the Indian context, developing help-seeking interventions, and examining their effectiveness in increasing the uptake of mental health services.