Adolescent Mental Health Help-Seeking from Family and Doctors: Applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour to the Northern Ireland Schools and Wellbeing Study

Figures & data

Figure 1. Structural model indicating the predicted relationships between the latent variables.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics for the latent variables within the model.

	M	SD	Range	Possible range^a
Family activity	14.57	3.25	5–25	5–25, 15
Family life	26.10	4.14	9–32	8–32, 20
Strengths & difficulties (mental health problems)	13.67	5.42	2–33	0–40, 20
Attitude to doctor help	59.15	17.04	14–98	14–98, 56
Prosocial behaviour (subjective norm)	7.49	1.84	0–10	0–10, 5
Confidence discussing mental health with doctor	3.67	1.98	1–7	1–7, 4
Intentions to seek help from family	13.51	4.97	3–21	3–21, 12
Intentions to seek help from medical profession	4.53	3.04	2–14	2–14, 8

^a Note: The midpoints for the scales are indicated beside the possible range figures.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics split by gender for the latent variables within the model.

	Male		Female
	M	SD	M	SD
Family activity	14.60	3.28	14.57	3.22
Family life*	26.43	3.77	25.93	4.32
Strengths & difficulties (mental health problems)***	12.30	4.97	14.45	5.50
Attitude to doctor help***	68.86	16.29	64.12	17.98
Prosocial behaviour (subjective norm)***	6.73	1.94	7.94	1.62
Confidence discussing mental health with doctor**	3.86	1.94	3.56	2.00
Intentions to seek help from family***	14.18	4.79	13.11	5.04
Intentions to seek help from medical profession***	4.88	3.28	4.32	2.86

Note: * refers to statistical significance at p < .01; ** refers to statistical significance at p < .001.

Table 3. The estimated measurement components of the structural equation model.

Item	Family activity	Family life	Strengths & difficulties	Attitude to doctor help	Intentions to seek help from family	Intentions to seek help from medical
Famact1	.50	–	–	–	–	–
Famact2	.52	–	–	–	–	–
Famact3	.49	–	–	–	–	–
Famact4	.63	–	–	–	–	–
Famact5	.75	–	–	–	–	–
Famlife1	–	.86	–	–	–	–
Famlife2	–	.58	–	–	–	–
Famlife3	–	.87	–	–	–	–
Famlife4	–	.86	–	–	–	–
Famlife5	–	.57	–	–	–	–
Famlife6	–	.31	–	–	–	–
Famlife7	–	.39	–	–	–	–
Famlife8	–	.83	–	–	–	–
SDQemot	–	–	.52	–	–	–
SDQcond	–	–	.57	–	–	–
SDQhype	–	–	.54	–	–	–
SDQpeer	–	–	.47	–	–	–
AttDocH1	–	–	–	.39	–	–
AttDocH2	–	–	–	.39	–	–
AttDocH3	–	–	–	.46	–	–
AttDocH4	–	–	–	.50	–	–
AttDocH5	–	–	–	.62	–	–
AttDocH6	–	–	–	.59	–	–
AttDocH7	–	–	–	.66	–	–
AttDocH8	–	–	–	.73	–	–
AttDocH9	–	–	–	.62	–	–
AttDocH10	–	–	–	.72	–	–
AttDocH11	–	–	–	.70	–	–
AttDocH12	–	–	–	.75	–	–
AttDocH13	–	–	–	.66	–	–
AttDocH14	–	–	–	.80	–	–
IntentDad	–	–	–	–	.76	–
IntentMum	–	–	–	–	.86	–
IntentSib	–	–	–	–	.56	–
IntentGP	–	–	–	–	–	.89
IntentSNur	–	–	–	–	–	.87

Note: Single items relating to SDQ-Prosocial Behaviour and Confidence in Discussing Mental Health with Doctor are assumed to measure associated latent variable perfectly.

Figure 2. Structural model indicating the relationships between the latent variables.

Note: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

Table 4. Multi-group comparison of SEM model path coefficients, by gender.

Path	Female	Male
Family activity → Strengths & difficulties**	−.00	−.14
Family activity → Intentions to seek help from medical***	.17	.51
Family activity → Attitude to doctor help	.03	.11
Family activity → Intentions to seek help from family*	.10	.20
Family activity → Prosocial behaviour***	.17	.36
Family activity → Confidence discussing mental health with doctor***	.21	.02
Family life → Strengths & difficulties***	−.89	−.80
Family life → Attitude to doctor help	.26	.26
Family life → Prosocial behaviour***	.46	.64
Family life → Intentions to seek help from family***	.62	.08
Family life → Confidence discussing mental health with doctor***	.15	.49
Strengths & difficulties → Attitude to doctor help**	−.51	−.39
Strengths & difficulties → Confidence discussing M. health doctor***	−.23	−.02
Strengths & difficulties → Intentions to seek help from medical*	−.16	.03
Strengths & difficulties → Intentions to seek help from family	−.20	−.15
Attitude to doctor Help → Intentions to seek help from medical	.28	.23
Attitude to doctor Help → Intentions to seek help from family	.12	−.03
Prosocial behaviour → Intentions to seek help from medical	.05	−.09
Prosocial behaviour → Intentions to seek help from family	−.03	−.03
Confidence discussing M. health with doctor → Intentions help medical	.20	.15
Confidence discussing M. health with doctor → Intentions help family	−.00	.04

Note: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001 (Comparison of path coefficients based on Fisher’s z transformation test).