Can Collegians' Mental Health Beliefs Determine Their Readiness to Seek Mental Health Services? A Descriptive Predictive Study

A descriptive predictive design was used to guide this study, which mainly aims to identify students' readiness to seek mental health services (MHS). The study was conducted at different universities across Iraq by an online survey. The study included a convenience sample of 460 university students. Data were collected through using a self-reported online survey for the period from October 28th, 2019 to March 30th, 2020. The study instrument includes the sociodemographic sheet and the Mental Health Belief Model Assessment, which assesses the six constructs of the HBM: Perceived Susceptibility, Perceived Severity, Perceived Benefits, Perceived Barriers, Self-Efficacy, and Fears. The study results revealed that less than a fifth reported that they experienced a mental health problem (n = 72; 15.7%). There are associations between students Perceived Severity of MDs, their families socioeconomic status, and their readiness to seek mental health services (r = .015; .008) respectively. The researchers recommend that there is a need to establish community-based health education activities that focus on raising the publics awareness of the extreme importance of seeking mental health services. Moreover, mental health professionals in Iraq need to launch as many mental health education activities as possible to consolidate the publics rapport and trust with them. Keywords: Mental Disorders- Mental Health- College students- Stigma- Mental Health Beliefs-Mental health services