Help-seeking for mental health

Russ, Anna Joy; Petrocchi, Serena; Kim, Yungwook; Schulz, Peter J.

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1839818

Back

Journal article

Help-seeking for mental health : an exploratory cross-national study of Italian and South Korean university students

Russ, Anna Joy ORCID Facoltà di comunicazione, cultura e società, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera
Petrocchi, Serena Institute of Family Medicine (IMF), Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland
Kim, Yungwook Division of Communication and Media, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Schulz, Peter J. ORCID Facoltà di comunicazione, cultura e società, Università della Svizzera italiana, Svizzera - Division of Communication and Media, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea - Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information and LKC School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore

2026

Published in:

Frontiers in Psychology. - 2026, vol. 17, p. 1839818

English Introduction: Mental health help-seeking intentions are associated with individual, social, and contextual factors, yet cross-national research comparing Western and East Asian populations remains limited, and few studies have evaluated whether cultural variables contribute explanatory value beyond established predictors. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional survey was administered to 304 university students (154 Italian, 150 South Korean) aged 19–35. A series of block-wise hierarchical regressions examined associations between demographic characteristics, social support, self-stigma, prior service use, and cultural variables with help-seeking intentions in two independently recruited national samples. Results: Support from significant others toward mental health services was associated with intentions in early model steps but lost significance when cultural variables were added. Prior experience with mental health services was positively associated with future intentions. Among the variables entered in the final model, nationality had the largest standardized regression coefficient (β = 0.251), with South Koreans reporting higher observed scores than Italians. Resistance to change-beliefs was positively associated with intentions, though this finding should be treated with caution given measurement non-equivalence. Independent and interdependent self-construal contributed no significant explanatory variance. Discussion: These exploratory findings suggest that nationality and individual-level cultural proxies may capture distinct dimensions of cultural associations and point to promising directions for future research on culturally adapted mental health interventions.

Collections