Youth help-seeking expectancies and their relation to help-seeking behaviours for substance use problems

Objective: To explore how the nature youth expectancies (i.e. their underlying attitudinal and motivational factors) influence help seeking behavioural patterns for Substance Use Problems (SUP). Method: Focus groups were conducted to collect the most important items/issues identified by youth, in their own words. Twenty-four participants were recruited, ranging in ages 14-21 years, 17 males, 7 females, which were formed into four focus groups. Participants were recruited from group homes/shelters, addiction programs, mental health services, general youth programs, and schools in Toronto Canada. The participants had a variety of cultural and social economic status backgrounds. This qualitative data was analyzed by the technique of content analysis. Results: A number of theoretical constructs or themes were elicited from the focus group data. Most constructs supported existing literature, but a number of novel constructs or variations of old ones emerged, regarding first contact with therapy providers, motivation to change, family involvement, forced treatment, and initial and ongoing contact with therapy. Conclusions: The focus group data contained important constructs in regards to help-seeking expectancies and confirms findings from other research in this area. This data has the potential to assist in helping predict outcomes for adolescents with SUP, as well as significantly assist mental health professionals in lowering barriers to help seeking. Understanding these barriers is an initial step toward the development of an evidence-base for treatment program improvements and specialized services that will promote help seeking among this population.