Effects of a Brief Media Intervention on Expectations, Attitudes, and Intentions of Mental Health Help Seeking

• Published in: Journal of counseling psychology Vol. 59; no. 2; pp. 222 - 229
• Main Authors: Demyan, Amy L., Anderson, Timothy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-04-2012
• Subjects: Adult; Attitude to Health; Attitude towards mental illness; Attitudes; Biological and medical sciences; College Students; Control Groups; Counseling Psychology; Expectations; Female; Health Attitudes; Health Care Seeking Behavior; Health Services; Help Seeking; Help Seeking Behavior; Helpseeking; Human; Humans; Intention; Interpersonal problems; Intervention; Male; Marketing of Health Services; Mass Media; Media; Medical sciences; Mental Disorders - rehabilitation; Mental Health; Mental health care; Mental Health Services; Midwestern United States; Patient Acceptance of Health Care; Planned behaviour; Positive thought; Programming; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychotherapy; Public Service; Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry; Studies; Undergraduate Students; Video Technology; Videotapes; Midwestern United States; mass-media communications; expectations; psychotherapy; help seeking; treatment attitudes; Human; Help seeking; Attitude; Mental health; Psychotherapy; Brief intervention; Theory of planned behavior; Social cognition; Mass communication; Treatment; Intention; Mass media; Expectation; Predictive factor
• ISSN: 0022-0167; 1939-2168
• DOI: 10.1037/a0026541

This study examined the effects of a mass-media video intervention on expectations, attitudes, and intentions to seek help from professional mental health care services. A public service announcement-style, mass-media video intervention was developed, with prior empirical research on help-seeking behaviors organized according to the theory of reasoned action/planned behavior. In total, 228 participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 conditions: (a) the media-exposed intervention group, who watched programming in which the media intervention was inserted, and (b) the control group, who watched the same programming without the media intervention. The media intervention was not influential on expectation and belief-based barrier variables. However, the media intervention was effective at increasing positive attitudes toward help seeking. Findings regarding the intervention's ability to increase help-seeking intentions for interpersonal problems were complex. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed.