Teaching profession, connection to psychology, and perceptions of psychologists in association with psychological...

Teaching is linked to elevated mental health risks, yet little is known about teachers' psychological help-seeking intentions (PHSI), defined as intentions to seek professional help from a psychologist. This study examines whether the teaching profession, as an occupational factor, is indirectly associated with PHSI through two categories of psychology-related factors: connection to psychology and perceptions of psychologists. Connection to psychology encompasses interest in psychology and positive and negative contact with psychologists, while perceptions of psychologists comprise trust in psychologists and self-stigma of psychological help-seeking.

The study sample consisted of 1,101 in-service school teachers and a comparison group of 600 non-teachers from the Slovak general population, allowing the teaching profession to be treated as a categorical variable. Participants completed an online survey assessing the main variables (interest, contact, trust, self-stigma, and PHSI) alongside control variables (sex, age, education, residence, self-rated mental health, and self-reliance).

Being in the teaching profession was associated with greater interest in psychology and more frequent positive and negative contact with psychologists. Greater interest, more frequent positive contact, and less frequent negative contact were each associated with higher trust in psychologists and lower self-stigma of psychological help-seeking. Higher trust and lower self-stigma were, in turn, associated with greater PHSI. Unexpectedly, the teaching profession was also associated with lower trust in psychologists, which was associated with lower PHSI.

These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the interplay between occupational and psychology-related factors in relation to PHSI and may inform efforts to support professional psychological help-seeking among teachers and, more broadly, the general population.