Differences between helpful and unhelpful support for Japanese non-help-seeking adolescents: A qualitative analysis

ABSTRACT The existence of young adolescents who do not seek help for their distress has been widely recognized, but few studies have focused on non-help-seekers, except for those related to help-seeking barriers. The current study sought to qualitatively determine a non-help-seeking adolescent’s perception toward a variety of supportive behaviors from others around them. The participants of individual interviews included Japanese secondary-school students (n = 12) and young adults (n = 10) who had chosen not to talk about their internal problems to others when they were secondary-school students. The data were analyzed by a hybrid approach in the thematic analysis. Thirteen themes for helpful behaviors such as “expression of caring” and “display consideration to avoid one’s disclosure,” and twelve themes for unpleasant behaviors including “force one’s disclosure” and “unsympathetic encouragement” were generated; all themes were categorized either to direct/indirect instrumental support or direct/indirect emotional support. The results found that non-help-seeking adolescents positively perceived direct and indirect emotional support, whereas they negatively evaluated non-required direct support regardless of whether it was instrumental or emotional. The findings have implications for the development of novel methods of supporting non-help-seekers besides encouraging help-seeking behaviors.