ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1553716
This article is part of the Research TopicImplementing Mental Health Prevention and Promotion Programs: A Sustainable Approach - Volume IIView all 10 articles
The impact of mental health literacy on professional psychological help-seeking attitudes among Chinese college students: the chain mediating role of anxiety and depression
Provisionally accepted
- College of Education Science, Beihua University, Jilin, China
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By analyzing cross-sectional data from 2,078 college students, this study aims to explore the impact of mental health literacy on Chinese college students' professional psychological help-seeking attitudes and to test the chained mediation role of anxiety and depression. Results show that mental health literacy significantly positively predicts professional psychological help-seeking attitudes. Anxiety and depression exhibit partial mediation effects, forming a chained mediation pathway, suggesting mental health literacy indirectly reduces depression by alleviating anxiety, enhancing professional psychological help-seeking attitudes. This study reveals the chained mechanism between anxiety and depression, addressing previous neglect of emotional factors, and highlights the core role of practical dimensions in mental health literacy. It is suggested that universities incorporate mental health literacy training into curricula, strengthen practical skill development, and design interventions for emotion regulation to disrupt the negative cycle of anxiety-depression. This study provides a theoretical basis and targeted strategies for optimizing psychological services for college students.
Keywords: Mental Health Liter acy, Pr ofessional Psychological Help-Seeking Attitudes, Anxiety, Depr ession, Univer sity Students
Received: 31 Dec 2024; Accepted: 08 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shi and Tian. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jinlai Tian, College of Education Science, Beihua University, Jilin, China
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