A grounded theory study of help-seeking behaviors among White male high school students.

This study used grounded theory methodology (B. G. Glaser & A. L. Strauss, 1967; A. Strauss & J. Corbin, 1990) to explore the help-seeking behaviors of a select group of White male adolescents to understand and identify the mental health stressors in their lives and the factors involved with their decisions to seek or not to seek help for those stressors. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 22 males, 4 female adolescent counterparts, 4 male parents, and 5 high school staff members. The substantive grounded theory that emerged was that the communal pressures of wealth, success, and high expectations creates a tremendous amount of stress for males to be successful and fit in and contributes to a gender-linked stigma about males' help-seeking behaviors. Specific motivators and barriers to help seeking are identified and discussed, as are common methods and resources used by males to deal with personal problems. Finally, suggestions for making professional helping services more acceptable to this population are presented, and specific research directions are posited.

[1]  J. Ponterotto.  Qualitative Research Methods , 2002 .

[2]  M. Bashshur,et al.  Client Perspectives of Multicultural Counseling Competence , 2002 .

[3]  A Bandura,et al.  Social cognitive theory of gender development and differentiation. , 1999, Psychological review.

[4]  Frederick T. L. Leong,et al.  Gender and opinions about mental illness as predictors of attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help , 1999 .

[5]  J. Kalafat,et al.  Adolescents' Views of Preferred Helper Characteristics and Barriers to Seeking Help From School-Based Adults , 1998 .

[6]  J. Creswell.  Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions. , 1998 .

[7]  R. Morrissey,et al.  Measuring Barriers to Help-Seeking Behavior in Adolescents , 1997 .

[8]  R. Blum,et al.  An Exploration of Help-seeking Behaviours in Female Hispanic Adolescents , 1997 .

[9]  Ruth E. Fassinger,et al.  Persistence, Connection, and Passion: A Qualitative Study of the Career Development of Highly Achieving African American-Black and White Women. , 1997 .

[10]  K. Schonert-Reichl,et al.  Correlates of help-seeking in adolescence , 1996 .

[11]  A. M. Cauce,et al.  Help-Seeking Pathways for Children and Adolescents , 1996 .

[12]  C. E. Watkins,et al.  Masculine gender role conflict: Effects on college men's psychological well-being, chemical substance usage, and attitudes towards help-seeking. , 1996 .

[13]  W. Wagner.  Optimal Development in Adolescence , 1996 .

[14]  D. Offer,et al.  Gender differences, but no racial group differences, in self-reported psychiatric symptoms in adolescents. , 1996, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[15]  G. Mason,et al.  In search of effective programs to address students' emotional distress and behavioral problems part III: student assessment of school-based support groups. , 1996, Adolescence.

[16]  P. McGorry,et al.  Who cares? Pathways to psychiatric care for young people experiencing a first episode of psychosis. , 1995, Psychiatric services.

[17]  J. Lönnqvist,et al.  Suicide among female adolescents: characteristics and comparison with males in the age group 13 to 22 years. , 1995, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[18]  M. Keshavan,et al.  Case study: risperidone in children and adolescents with schizophrenia. , 1995, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[19]  Barry J. Fallon,et al.  Adolescent help-seeking: what do they get help for and from whom? , 1995 .

[20]  W. Pollack.  Deconstructing dis-identification : rethinking psychoanalytic concepts of male development , 1995 .

[21]  A. Farina,et al.  Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help: A Shortened Form and Considerations for Research. , 1995 .

[22]  K. Schonert-Reichl,et al.  Seeking help from informal and formal resources during adolescence: sociodemographic and psychological correlates. , 1995, Adolescent psychiatry.

[23]  M. Stern,et al.  Working with Children , 1994 .

[24]  H. Adelman,et al.  Mental health and help-seeking among ethnic minority adolescents , 1994 .

[25]  L. Fitzgerald,et al.  Overcoming the masculine mystique : preferences for alternative forms of assistance among men who avoid counseling , 1992 .

[26]  A. Strauss,et al.  Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. , 1992 .

[27]  Julia Shuppert West,et al.  Student Perceptions That Inhibit the Initiation of Counseling. , 1991 .

[28]  M Davies,et al.  Uncommon troubles in young people: prevalence estimates of selected psychiatric disorders in a nonreferred adolescent population. , 1990, Archives of general psychiatry.

[29]  E. Dubow,et al.  Demographic Differences in Adolescents' Health Concerns and Perceptions of Helping Agents , 1990 .

[30]  Catherine C. Marshall,et al.  Designing Qualitative Research , 1996 .

[31]  M. Sugar,et al.  Adolescent psychiatry : developmental and clinical studies , 1977 .

[32]  R. Bottorff,et al.  Selected High School Counseling Services: Student Assessment. , 1986 .

[33]  P. Munhall,et al.  Nursing Research: A Qualitative Perspective , 1987 .

[34]  Steven J. Taylor.  Introduction to qualitative research methods : the search for meanings / by Steven J. Taylor, Robert Bogdan , 1984 .

[35]  A. Strauss,et al.  The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research aldine de gruyter , 1968 .

[36]  R. Byrne.  The school counselor , 1963 .