Among 258 Midwestern male farmers and ranchers (average age 49), 87 percent coped with problems and difficulties by having faith in God. Respondents generally were reluctant to accept help from professionals, neighbors, or relatives, and were confident in their own abilities to solve their difficulties independently. Contains 22 references.…

Examines the effectiveness of indirect requests in attaining assistance from intimate and nonintimate others. Finds that directness of requests increases request force and interacts with relational intimacy to influence verbal compliance. Finds that directness is more effective at eliciting verbal compliance at higher levels of intimacy. (KEH)

Among 91 recent Central American immigrants: (1) employment was the most stressful area of life and had the greatest effect on subjects' adjustment, both positively and negatively; (2) children were the best adjusted family members; and (3) utilization of social services was reported quite low. Contains 14 references. (SV)

Coping styles of 50 learning-disabled and non-learning-disabled adolescents and their parents were compared. Learning-disabled adolescents showed less ability to appraise a source of stress and to seek information about their stressful situations and showed greater pessimism about academic concerns. Coping patterns of parents did not clearly…

Interviewed 50 hospitalized suicide attempters and 57 professional caregivers they identified as having been consulted prior to attempts. Approximately one-half of patients directly disclosed suicidal symptoms or intentions, especially to mental health professionals. Few caregivers noted suicidal thinking or probed suicidal symptoms. Data suggest…

Administered survey of attitudes toward counseling to college students in 1976 and 1989, rating likelihood of seeking counseling, likelihood of seeking help from professional and nonprofessional helpers, likelihood of seeking help for differing problems, degree of responsibility professional should assume, and preferences for five counseling…

This study found that general-case instruction, used to teach three adolescents with severe disabilities to request assistance, produced generalized requests with two of the three learners. General-case instruction appeared to be superior to single-instance instruction. (Author/JDD)

Reports findings of five studies that address the development and validation of a measure of attitudes toward career counseling, the Attitudes Toward Career Counseling Scale (ATCCS). Findings suggest that the ATCCS measures attitudes that are related but not identical to those found for seeking professional help in general. (Author/GCP)

Proposes that premarital education efforts can reduce marital distress and divorce. Using a combination of rational argument and empirical findings, four key benefits of premarital education are discussed: (a) it fosters deliberation; (b) it sends the message that marriage matters; (c) it make seeking help an option; and (d) it may lower risk for…

This study examines the willingness of Jewish and Arab Israeli adolescents to look for help in times of distress and explores the factors that are associated with the willingness of these adolescents to look for help from formal vs. informal sources. The sample consisted of 6017 randomly selected respondents, 14-18 years old, attending secondary…

Many people who would benefit from mental health services opt not to pursue them or fail to fully participate once they have begun. One of the reasons for this disconnect is stigma; namely, to avoid the label of mental illness and the harm it brings, people decide not to seek or fully participate in care. Stigma yields 2 kinds of harm that may…

The author used national data to examine the help-seeking strategies of female crime victims. The research has two objectives. First, to determine whether help seeking exists as isolated choices or whether there is a discernable set of help-seeking strategies used by victims. Second, the author examined the effects of race and the victim-offender…

This study evaluated the relationship of J. O. Prochaska's (1984; J. O. Prochaska & C. C. DiClemente, 1992) transtheoretical model of change with the process and outcome of short-term counseling in college help seekers. Participants completed measures of readiness to change, psychological symptoms, and working alliance. Clients in the…

In this study, the effects of a teacher-training program on the elaborations and affective-motivational resources (i.e., intentions and attitudes toward help seeking, help giving, and achievement goals) of students working on a cooperative task were examined. Participants were teachers from seven primary schools and 24 dyads of sixth-grade…

Two studies examined the predictors of seeking psychological services. Study 1 examined the role of attitudes in mediating the relationship between 11 psychological factors and intent to seek help for 3 psychological problems. The results demonstrated that (a) the psychological factors and attitudes predicted 62% of the variance in intent to seek…