Social influences on seeking help from mental health services, in-person and online, during adolescence and young adulthood

Background: This study provides the first comprehensive empirical evidence of developmental changes in the social influences on seeking mental health care, both in-person and online, during the critical lifestages for mental health of adolescence and young adulthood. Methods: Main source of help-seeking influence was determined via self-report for all young people accessing youth-targeted mental health services in Australia for a first episode of care over a 12 month period during 2013. This comprised 30,839 young people who accessed in-person services and 7,155 clients of the online service. Results: Results show a major developmental shift in help-seeking influence across the age range, which varied for males and females, and a striking difference between the online and in-person service modalities. The dominant influence online, regardless of age, was the young person themself. In contrast, for in-person services, the dominant influence during adolescence was family, but this changed markedly in late adolescence to favour self-influence, with a lessor, but still substantial effect of family. The influence of friends was surprisingly low. Conclusions: To support young people with mental health problems to access mental health care, the personal connection of parents and family needs to be engaged to encourage in-person service use through better mental health literacy, particularly for adolescents. In the online environment, ways to ensure that young people themselves are guided to appropriate services are required.