Exploring mental health literacy and help-seeking behaviours at university - A survey of UK undergraduate students considering the COM-B model.

The number of undergraduate students in the UK experiencing poor mental health is increasing each year, but many are unlikely to seek help for this. Previous work highlights low levels of mental health literacy as a major barrier to students seeking-help. This exploratory study aimed to provide an insight into current student help-seeking behaviours by applying the COM-B model. In addition, the study considered barriers to seeking help in relation to levels of mental health literacy and stages of the help-seeking model. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted to collect quantitative data anonymously from current undergraduate students at UK universities (n=234) between the 21st January and 20th May 2022. Participants were recruited using social media and, with permission, through university student mailing lists. Results suggest a positive relationship between a student's level of mental health literacy and the likelihood of them seeking help for their mental health. When seeking help, students appear to have their own individual preferred help sources, with many preferring to seek help from intimate partners and/or online search engines. Results suggest that there are three main individual attributes that could be linked to lower chances of completing the help seeking process: low perceived levels of psychological capability, low mental health literacy levels and low levels of automatic motivation to seek help. Building on the results of this study, future work could address the attributes identified, breaking down barriers and supporting students to seek help in the most effective way moving forward.