Factors associated with behaviors of university students experienced trauma toward seeking psychological help

Traumatic experiences are shocking events that dramatically threaten the individual and community mental health. It is known that many people experience at least one of these events or situations throughout their life. However, individuals who are exposed to or witness traumatic events do not generally get any professional psychological help although they need. In order to become widespread behaviors toward getting psychological help after trauma, it is required to be clearly known which factors associated with these behaviors. The primary purpose of this research is to investigate behaviors of university students experienced trauma toward seeking psychological help by associating with gender, coping behaviours and perceived social support. In addition, the other objective of the study is to research the relations of experienced trauma with different variables. This study was structured in accordance with the sequential explanatory design of mixed- methods. The sample consisted of 700 university students in quantitative part and 10 university students in qualitative part. In the course of data collection, Traumatic Event List, BRIEF COPE, Multi Dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), The Scale of Attitudes toward Seeking Psychological Help, and Semi-Structured Interview Schedule were applied. The techniques of Logistic Regression, Chi-Square (Test), ANOVA, MANOVA, Independent Samples t-Test and descriptive analysis were used in data analysis. Research results demonstrated that the frequency of being exposed to or witnessing traumatic events among university students was high. Having traumatic experiences was found significantly associated with perceived social support. It was observed that perceived social support by the students not experienced trauma were higher. There was no significant difference between students experienced trauma and the others who not experienced trauma, related to attitudes toward seeking psychological help.In the research, it was confirmed that trauma sufferers appeal to seek and accept emotional social support while individuals not having such experiences significantly have more coping attitudes toward humour and seeking instrumental support. Other coping attitudes were not associated with experiencing trauma. It was determined that students with a high level of socio-economic income and Imam Hatip High School graduates encounter with traumatic experiences less. Nearly half of the students had a psychiatric problem after trauma. On the other hand, suicidal ideation/behaviour among sufferers was observed at lower rates. The other negative effects of traumatic events on mental health are negative affect, disruption of mentality and its function, and sleep problems. Only 14.5 percent of the students exposed to or witnessing traumatic events received psychological help at a professional level. However, access to unprofessional help resources were considerably common among these persons. Trauma sufferers receiving psychological help at a professional level mostly appeal to coping attitudes such as substance-use, withdrawal behaviour, seeking instrumental social support, and self-reproach. There was no significant relation between social support received by sufferers and behaviours toward seeking psychological help. While some parts of the results obtained from the study were parallel with findings of the literature, some other parts differed from the literature. The results were discussed in the light of the literature and suggestions were put forward in accordance with the results revealed.