Promoting college students to seek help for mental health difficulties: a social normative approach

Abstract

The aim of this study was to test whether an online social normative intervention would promote college students’ help seeking attitudes and intentions. To investigate this, a between-group, post-test, experimental design consisting of 207 students (69 males, 138 females), aged 18–25 years (M = 20.46, SD = 1.96) was used. Students who received the social normative feedback reported more positive help-seeking attitudes, with students who had mental health problems also reporting more positive help-seeking intentions. The findings of this study are discussed with respect to methodological considerations, and recommendations for practice and future research are provided for student counselling clinics.

Keywords:

• Help seeking
• social norms approach
• student mental health