Abstract

Mental health problems need adequate treatment and management but due to prevailing societal conditions like stigma, inaccessibility in mental health, lack of awareness and financial issues impede young adults from seeking professional mental health care. The present study aims to find out the relationship between help seeking behaviour and mental health stigma among young adults as well as to find whether mental health stigma and help seeking behaviour differ with respect to gender. The sample comprises 400 young adults of 18-25 years of age randomly selected from different districts of Kerala. Stigmatizing Attitudes-Believability, Attitudes towards Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale-Short and personal data sheet were used to collect data from participants. Findings revealed that there was no significant difference in mental health stigma and help seeking behaviour among young adults based on gender. But there was a significant negative correlation between these study variables. This study provided insights on the stigmatic experiences and helping behaviour among young adults which can be used for further studies.