Environmental Factors Influencing Help-seeking Behavior Among Japanese Adolescents.

Abstract

Objectives: Previous studies have demonstrated that adolescents do not tend to actively engage in help-seeking behaviors. Therefore, it is imperative to create an environment where adolescents can seek assistance on their own. However, no concrete method to create such environments has been established.

Design: We studied adolescents' help-seeking behaviors by administering a questionnaire that collected information on who offer help ("helpers"), how help is offered ("methods of help"), and where these interactions occur ("places of help").

Methods: We asked college students to recall their thoughts related to seeking help when they were 10-15 years old.

Results: Our results indicated that adolescents require trustworthy helpers who respect and understand them, face-to-face interactions, peer helpers of a similar age, mental health dialog, and safe and secure location outside of school for seeking help.

Conclusions: This study suggested a method to provide assistance in the field of child mental health, which is crucial for the development of the adolescents' ability to seek help and resolve mental health problems on their own.