University life can be a time of transition for a student before entering the world of the profession. Students need to be wise and mature in facing various challenges throughout their studies and other challenges such as family and finances, which cause depression in everyday life. Students need support, encouragement and help-seeking from family, friends, and people around them mentally and emotionally. In this study, there are two objectives. First, to determine the difference in mental help-seeking attitudes between public and private university students in Petaling and the second objective is to identify the significant factors that influence the mental help-seeking behaviour of university students. A total of 378 university students were involved in this study. A cross-sectional study comparing private and public university students and the sampling method, a stratified sampling technique was implemented. An online survey was used to get a response from the students. The research instrument used in this study was the Mental Help Seeking Attitudes Scale (MHSAS), the Depression Literacy Questionnaire (D-Lit), and the Self-Stigma of Seeking Help Scale (SSOSH). Data analysis was used such as Independent T-test for the first objective and Multiple Linear Regression for the second objective. The finding from the first objective reveals a significant difference in the MHSAS. It shows that public university students find it easier to seek mental health assistance than private university students. The results of the regression indicated gender, household income, SSOSH, and race contributed significantly to the model. Female students who are Malay, with lower self-stigma and have a low household income are more likely to seek mental health care than other students. Since self-stigma is an obstacle to seeking mental help, efforts to minimise self-stigma must be stepped up.
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In-Text Citation: (Mohamed et al., 2022)
To Cite this Article: Mohamed, C. N. C., Yazid, N. N. A., & Raphaie, F. K. A. (2022). Prevalence of Mental Health Help-Seeking Attitudes among Public and Private Universities Students: A Case Study in Petaling. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 12(10), 1560– 1571.
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