College Students' Perceptions of Severity and Willingness to Seek Psychological Help For Drug and Alcohol Problems.

A sample of 201 college students were surveyed with respect to their perceptions of severity and willingness to seek psychological help for drug and alcohol problems. Results indicated that students perceive alcohol problems as significantly less serious than drug problems and are significantly less willing to seek help for alcohol problems. Males perceived drug and alcohol problems as significantly less serious than females. Results also show significant gender differences in the factors of interference in the student's life that would motivate them to seek help for drug and alcohol problems with women perceiving alcohol problems as significantly more likely to interfere with a student's daily routine and education. Women were also significantly more willing to get help for an alcohol problem. Introduction Studies indicate that somewhere between 10% and 25% of college students engage in heavy or problem drinking, 8% of 18 year olds meet the criteria for marihuana dependence, and the incidence of the use of other illicit drugs by college students is distressingly high and on the rise (Bennett, McCrady, Keller & Paulus, 1996; Latimer, Kilmer, & Lee, 2005). Shillington & Clapp (2006) found that alcohol and drug problems accounted for a significant percentage of students missing classes, performing poorly in school, and engaging in verbal fights. Yet in spite of the widespread prevalence of alcohol and drug problems among college youth and the negative impact that these problems have on students, there is a severe underutilization of counseling services by college students for mental health problems including drug and alcohol problems (Eisenberg, Hunt, Speer, & Zivin, 2011); if fact, it is estimated that less than half of all students who need mental health services actually receive it (Heppner, Kivlighan, Good, Roehlke, Hills, & Ashby, 1994; Oliver, Reed, Katz, & Haugh, 1999). Oliver, Reed, Katz, & Haugh (1999) noted that students who abused alcohol were more unlikely than those with other mental health issues to seek help for their problem from either professional counselors or informal sources of support. There are a large variety of factors that are known to prevent young adults including college students from seeking psychological help for mental health problems including a need for autonomy (Wilson, Bushnell & Caputi, 2010), both social and self-stigma (Wade, Post, Cornish, Vogel, & Tucker, 2011), and lack of knowledge concerning the nature of the emotional problem (Wright, Jorm, Harris, & McGorry, 2007). Recent evidence suggests that problem type and perceptions of problem severity are also highly significant indicators of psychological help-seeking among college students (Wright, Jorm, Harris, & McGorry, 2007; Wollersheim, McFall, Hamilton, Hickey, & Bordewick, 1980) Yet, there have been relatively few studies on the effects of problem type and problem severity on psychological help-seeking among college students (Hsu & Alden, 2008; Mosher, 2002; Wollersheim et. al, 1980) and perhaps even fewer studies on help-seeking among college students for alcohol problems (Oliver, Reed, Katz, & Haugh, 1999; Vogel, Wester, & Wei, 2005). Moreover, there is little or no literature comparing students' perceptions of problem severity and willingness for psychological help-seeking for drug versus alcohol problems. In fact, the few articles on the topic that this researcher was able to find assume that drug and alcohol problems are perceived as similar among college student populations even though there is little or no evidence to suggest that this it so (Oliver, Reed, Katz, & Haugh, 1999; Vogel, Wester, & Wei, 2005). In examining differences based on problem type and severity, there is also some reason to believe that men and women might differ on their beliefs about the severity of psychological problems as well as their willingness to seek help for those problems; for example, women are more likely than men to seek psychological help in college populations (Nam, Chu, Lee, Lee, Kim, & Lee, 2010). …