Psychological help seeking attitudes of university students

This study aimed to investigate university students' attitudes towards seeking psychological help in terms of the study variables such as their insight into the Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, place of stay, degree of satisfaction with the attended program, presence of a close relationship with the opposite sex, presence of a person with psychological problems in the family, receiving social support, self-concealment and gender roles. The study group consisted of approximately 20.000 students attending a vocational school and five faculties in a public university in the Spring term of the 2017-2018 academic year. A total of 707 students consisting of 477 women (67.75%) and 228 men (32.25%) were selected using the convenience sampling strategy. Personal Information Form, BEM Sex Role Inventory – Short Form (BSRI-S) and Attitudes towards Seeking Psychological Help Scale– Short Form (ATSPHS-S) were used as data collection tools. Factorial ANOVA was used to compare the mean differences of the participants in line with the research questions of this study. The relationship between gender roles and seeking psychological help was investigated by Multiple Regression Analyses. The findings of this study demonstrated that the variables including insight into the Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, degree of satisfaction with the attended program, receiving social support, self-concealment, and gender roles significantly predicted university students' attitudes towards seeking psychological help. It was concluded that there was not a strong correlation among presence of a close relationship with the opposite sex, presence of a person with psychological problems in the family, place of stay, and participantts' attitudes towards seeking psychological help. Keywords: gender, feminine gender role, masculine gender role, attitude towards seeking psychological help.