Hope for Help-Seeking: A Positive Psychology Perspective of Psychological Help-Seeking Intentions

In the present study, we used multigroup structural equation modeling in a sample of college students (N = 2,461) to examine ethnic and gender differences in the connections between dispositonal hope and intentions to seek psychological help from formal and informal sources. In a personalemotional problem scenario, we found a robust positive relationship between hope and intentions to seek help from informal sources, but no association for formal sources. In a suicidal thoughts scenario, hope was positively associated with intentions to seek both informal and formal psychological help. Results of exploratory moderation analyses indicated that the model was invariant across non-Latino White students and Asian American students, as well as across men and women. These findings address critical gaps in the hope and help-seeking literature, and suggest that increasing college students’ dispositional hope may provide a unique 1University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA 2University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA 3Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA 4University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA Corresponding Author: Ryon C. McDermott, Professional Studies Department, University of South Alabama, 3800 UCOM, Mobile, AL 36688, USA. Email: [email protected] 693398 TCPXXX10.1177/0011000017693398The Counseling PsychologistMcDermott et al. research-article2017