"Come With Me if You Want to Live": Risk-Taking Behavior Predicts the Willingness to Seek Professional Psychological Help (Poster 71)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Eight
  In Poster Session: 2023 AERA Undergraduate Fellows Research Poster Fair

Abstract

While many studies have explored the psychosocial factors that make people averse to seeking professional psychological help, few studies have explored the factors that conversely attract people to mental health treatment. Given the literature on risk-taking behavior, it is reasonable to assert that therapy is a risk and many individuals avoid therapy because of its social, financial, and emotional costs. This relationship is further suggested by the known positive relationships between trait openness and risk taking, and trait openness and help-seeking attitudes. If therapy is a risk, does risk-taking behavior predict an individual’s willingness to seek help? The present study aimed to explain the relationship between risk taking and seeking help, and develop a comprehensive model of help-seeking behavior. Data was collected from 694 participants, who completed a self-report questionnaire regarding domain-specific risk-attitudes, help-seeking attitudes, stigma attitudes, personality, and invulnerability. EFA yielded a four-factor structure of participants’ risk attitudes: danger, moral, financial, and social. Through hierarchical regression, these four factors accounted for much greater variance than traditional unidimensional approaches to risk-taking behavior, and social risk attitudes were identified as a significant predictor of help-seeking attitudes. The final DDM model was able to identify 19 important predictors, notably facets of openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism, and financial risk attitudes. These 19 predictors yielded an AUC ROC = 82% and average accuracy = 74%. With evidence that risk averse people are less likely to utilize mental health resources, educators and health professionals must critically evaluate current methods of health promotion and incentivization. Future work should target individuals with personality traits that are less likely to seek help in order to ensure equitable resource access.

Author

• Austin Wyman, University of Notre Dame
  Presenting Author