Attitude towards Mental Illness, Seeking Professional Psychological Help and Coping Strategies among Psychology and Non-Psychology Students

Abstract

Students are very significant members of the society, thus their attitude towards mental illness can be greatly influential. Objective: The objective of the current study was to determine the attitude towards mental illness, seeking professional psychological help and coping strategies among psychology and non-psychology students. After detailed literature review, hypotheses were framed for the present study; 1: There will be significant differences among psychology and non-psychology students on the variables of attitude towards mental illness, seeking professional psychological help and coping strategies. 2: There would be significant differences among demographic variables on the study variables. Method: The total sample comprised of 300 (150 Psychology students and 150 non-psychology students) participants. Their age ranged from 18 to 30 years. They were approached from different educational institutes of Islamabad. Research measures employed were: Demographic Information Sheet, Attitude to Mental Illness Questionnaire (AMIQ) (Luty, Fakuda, & Umoh, 2006), Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale-Short Form ATSPPH-SF (Fischer & Turner’s 1970) and Brief COPE inventory (Carver,1997). For statistical analysis, descriptive, Pearson product-moment correlation, and t-test were used to analyze and interpret research data. Results indicate that there were significant differences between psychology and non-psychology student’s attitude towards mental illness, seeking professional psychological help and subscales of coping strategies. Significant differences were found between genders on seeking professional psychological help and subscales of coping i.e emotional focused coping strategies and problem focused coping strategies. Significant differences were found between Nuclear and Joint family structures on attitude towards mental illness and subscale of coping i-e emotional focused coping strategies. Significant differences were found between middle and upper class on attitude towards mental illness and subscale of coping i-e emotional focused coping strategies. Significant differences were found between under graduate and graduate students on seeking professional psychological help. Finally, limitations of current study and recommendations for future study have also been suggested.