Efficacy of contact intervention videos on college students’ intentions toward mental health help-seeking

Abstract

Objective

Untreated mental health (MH) concerns have significant implications for college students. This study examined the efficacy of a video contact intervention targeting students’ intentions to seek counseling. Participants: One-hundred and sixty-three college students (M^age = 21.05, SD = 2.20) from a Mid-Atlantic university participated. The sample was predominantly female (74%). Method: Students were randomly assigned to view a student-targeted contact video (ie, clips from college students who share their mental health experiences), a MH comparison contact video, or a non-MH comparison video. Intentions to seek counseling and psychological distress were measured pretest and post-test. Results: Intentions to seek counseling significantly increased from pretest to post-test in the student-targeted contact video condition (F[1, 156] = 22.75, p < .001, partial η² = .13), but not in the comparison conditions. Further, this effect was only observed among participants who reported preexisting psychological distress (F[1, 153] = 28.00, p < .001, partial η² = .16). Conclusions: This study provides initial support for the utility of a student-targeted contact intervention video for increasing help-seeking intentions among those reporting current psychological distress.

Keywords:

• Intentions to seek counseling
• mental illness stigma
• psychological distress
• treatment seeking
• video contact

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of USA and received approval from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Notes

1 Although the presented results were based on a dichotomization of the K10 variable, findings remained consistent when the K10 was considered continuously.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.