Perceptions of African adolescents to seeking professional psychological help

Abstract

In recent times, the prevalence of distress thoughts and behaviours among young
people in Africa has generated concerns. However, not many researchers have focused on the
attitudes of Africans towards seeking professional psychological help. In this study, we sought to
examine the perception of African adolescents to seek professional psychological help when faced
with life threatening circumstances. A descriptive research design of survey type was employed
to analyse data collected from 786 participants from South Africa and Nigeria who completed an
online measure of Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help (ATSPPH). 385
(48.9%) of the participants were male and 401 (51.0%) were female aged between 14 and 21.
The results established that a slightly high negative perception to seek professional psychological
help was found among African adolescents. Spiritual agents were the most preferred source of
help, followed by family members, close and friends/peers. However, South African participants
preferred to seek help from their close friends or peers, followed by no-one, family members,
professional psychologists, whilespiritual agents weretheleastsources of help. Further, thefinding
revealed that inadequate knowledge about professional psychological services, self-concealment,
self-stigma, lack of accessibility to professional service providers, waiting time, cost of service and
lack of trust were barriers to seeking professional psychological help. The study concludes that to
promote professional psychological help seeking behaviour among African adolescents, awareness
of psychological services as well as access to professional psychological services are required.
Also, culture specific interventions that are digitalized would encourage African adolescents with
psychological difficulties to seek professional psychological help.