Abstract

The study aimed at investigating the roles demographic factors, mental health literacy and delay factor play in the help-seeking attitude towards mental healthcare among young adults within the inner city of Uyo in Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria. Measures of mental health literacy, delay factor and attitude towards help-seeking for mental health help seeking as well as socio-demographic variables were administered to 385 participants aged 18 to 24 years. Participants were selected based on multistage sampling technique from the inner city areas. Bivariate analyses and stepwise regression model were used to analyse data. It was observed that delay factor (r = -0.18; p <.01) and mental health literacy were significantly associated with attitude toward mental health (r = - 0.16; p <.01) while age (r = -0.03; p >.05), sex (r = -0.06; p >.05), and income (r = 0.04; p >.05) were not significantly associated with attitude toward mental health. Further, it was observed that delay factor was a more robust predictor {β = -0.18; p <.00} of attitude toward mental health than mental health literacy {β = -0.13; p <.01}. These findings point to the important roles knowledge about mental health and reasons for delay play in understanding help-seeking attitude of youths towards mental health. The study concludes that interventions should target at removing barriers and societal stigmas in addition to better enlightenment on mental health care.

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