The relationship between university students' barriers to seeking mental health counseling and their attitudes to seeking professional psychological help

Aim: This research aims to determine the barriers that prevent university students from getting mental health counseling and the effects of these barriers on their attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at five universities in Iraq between 9/1/2020 and 1/3/2021. The universe of the research consisted of students studying at these universities. The sample number was determined as at least 384 people by the sample calculation method in cases where the universe is unknown. The data were collected online via google forms. "Personal Information Form", "Barriers to Seeking Mental Health Counseling" and "Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help" were used to collect data. Results: It was determined that 89.8% of the study group were male and 76.8% were between the ages of 19-23. Barriers to Seeking Mental Health Counseling Scale mean score of university students 27.33 ± 3.62 Attitudes Towards Seeking Professional Psychological Help scale mean score of 6.47 ± 3.62 Barriers to Seeking Mental Health Counseling Scale of university students sub-dimension scores of discomfort, in-group stigma, lack of knowledge and cultural barriers it was determined that there is a statistically significant negative relationship between the total score of the Attitudes Towards Seeking Professional Psychological Help scale and the total score. As the sub-dimension scores of discomfort related to emotions, in-group stigma, lack of knowledge and cultural barriers increase, the total score of the Attitudes Towards Seeking Psychological Help scale decreases. Conclusion: It was determined that the students' scores on the Barriers to Seeking Mental Health Counseling scale were high and these barriers negatively affected the Attitudes Towards Seeking Psychological Help. Keywords: Mental health, Psychological counseling, Prevention of mental health problem