Since the pandemic outbreak, the Malaysian government has implemented Movement Control Order (MCO) in March 2020 to constrict the civilian's movements in an effort to contain the spread of the Corona Virus. Under the effect of MCO, individuals who were not working within the essential services were encouraged to remain stationary in their place of residence. Currently, multiple states in Malaysia are still under the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) effect. Therefore, most post-secondary students have not regained the complete freedom to move freely and were isolated in their respective campuses. This group of individuals have been separated from their friends and family for several months in a stretch, reducing their much-needed psychological support. During these trying times, online help-seeking becomes an essential outlet for people to cope with their daily struggles and issues. Although the Covid-19 counselling hotline was introduced to outreach the general populace, help-seeking rates remained low. This study addresses the gap mentioned above by assessing the relationships between help-seeking intention, psychological openness, indifferent to stigma, and help-seeking propensity. A correlational survey study was conducted across Malaysia. The participants are university students aged between 18 to 29 who were recruited using the purposive sampling method. A total of 303 respondents participated in this survey. 62.7% were females (n = 190), while the remaining 37.3% were males (n = 113). Surprisingly, findings revealed that help-seeking intention was negatively correlated with psychological openness and indifferent to stigma (perceived public stigma and self-stigma). However, the help-seeking intention was found to correlate positively with help-seeking propensity. Counsellors, mental health practitioners, helpline operators, and educators may utilize the exploratory data from this study to devise preventative measures in increasing the individuals' intention to seek help from professionals for their mental and psychological health. In addition, university students could be benefited by dispelling the stigma of receiving counselling and increasing their awareness in seeking help.
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In-Text Citation: (Lee & Ho, 2021)
To Cite this Article: Lee, X., & Ho, K. H. (2021). Help-Seeking Behaviour of University Students During Covid-19 Pandemic: Psychological Openness, Indifference to Stigma, Help-Seeking Propensity. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 11(17), 64–73.
Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s)
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