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A Structural Equation Modeling of Mental Health Literacy in Healthcare Students

Background: There is a high prevalence of mental illness among healthcare students, and most students with mental health problems are reluctant to seek help from mental health professionals. Help-seeking is a component of mental health literacy (MHL). Although MHL is conceptualized as multi-dimensio...

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Autores principales: Lu, Chia-Min, Lien, Yin-Ju, Chao, Hsing-Jung, Lin, Hui-Shin, Tsai, I-Chuan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8701439/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34948873
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413264
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author Lu, Chia-Min
Lien, Yin-Ju
Chao, Hsing-Jung
Lin, Hui-Shin
Tsai, I-Chuan
author_facet Lu, Chia-Min
Lien, Yin-Ju
Chao, Hsing-Jung
Lin, Hui-Shin
Tsai, I-Chuan
author_sort Lu, Chia-Min
collection PubMed
description Background: There is a high prevalence of mental illness among healthcare students, and most students with mental health problems are reluctant to seek help from mental health professionals. Help-seeking is a component of mental health literacy (MHL). Although MHL is conceptualized as multi-dimensional, a theory-based multi-construct of MHL is still lacking. We aimed to build a theory-based multi-construct of MHL to explore the pathways of help-seeking. Methods: The data were obtained from a survey on MHL among healthcare students in 2018 (n = 1294). The Mental Health Literacy Scale for Healthcare Students was used to measure the maintenance of positive mental health, recognition of mental illness, mental illness stigma attitudes, help-seeking efficacy, and help-seeking attitudes. Descriptive analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted. Results: The findings of the SEM model indicated recognition of mental illness had a positive direct effect on both help-seeking efficacy and maintenance of positive mental health. Additionally, help-seeking efficacy fully mediated the relationship between recognition of mental illness and help-seeking attitudes. Conclusions: Help-seeking efficacy plays a significant role in healthcare students’ willingness to seek professional help when mental health care is needed. Accordingly, improving help-seeking efficacy strategies would increase the use of mental health services and contribute to the prevention of mental health problems.
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spelling pubmed-87014392021-12-24 A Structural Equation Modeling of Mental Health Literacy in Healthcare Students Lu, Chia-Min Lien, Yin-Ju Chao, Hsing-Jung Lin, Hui-Shin Tsai, I-Chuan Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: There is a high prevalence of mental illness among healthcare students, and most students with mental health problems are reluctant to seek help from mental health professionals. Help-seeking is a component of mental health literacy (MHL). Although MHL is conceptualized as multi-dimensional, a theory-based multi-construct of MHL is still lacking. We aimed to build a theory-based multi-construct of MHL to explore the pathways of help-seeking. Methods: The data were obtained from a survey on MHL among healthcare students in 2018 (n = 1294). The Mental Health Literacy Scale for Healthcare Students was used to measure the maintenance of positive mental health, recognition of mental illness, mental illness stigma attitudes, help-seeking efficacy, and help-seeking attitudes. Descriptive analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted. Results: The findings of the SEM model indicated recognition of mental illness had a positive direct effect on both help-seeking efficacy and maintenance of positive mental health. Additionally, help-seeking efficacy fully mediated the relationship between recognition of mental illness and help-seeking attitudes. Conclusions: Help-seeking efficacy plays a significant role in healthcare students’ willingness to seek professional help when mental health care is needed. Accordingly, improving help-seeking efficacy strategies would increase the use of mental health services and contribute to the prevention of mental health problems. MDPI 2021-12-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8701439/ /pubmed/34948873 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413264 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lu, Chia-Min
Lien, Yin-Ju
Chao, Hsing-Jung
Lin, Hui-Shin
Tsai, I-Chuan
A Structural Equation Modeling of Mental Health Literacy in Healthcare Students
title A Structural Equation Modeling of Mental Health Literacy in Healthcare Students
title_full A Structural Equation Modeling of Mental Health Literacy in Healthcare Students
title_fullStr A Structural Equation Modeling of Mental Health Literacy in Healthcare Students
title_full_unstemmed A Structural Equation Modeling of Mental Health Literacy in Healthcare Students
title_short A Structural Equation Modeling of Mental Health Literacy in Healthcare Students
title_sort structural equation modeling of mental health literacy in healthcare students
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8701439/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34948873
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413264
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