Professional Help-Seeking Behavior Among Immigrants in Ireland: Moderation of Social Capital

Background and Purpose: Existing research points out that mental health outcomes among immigrant communities in Ireland are not promising. Mental distress among immigrants might result in several negative outcomes, such as low self-esteem, poor quality of life and suicide attempts, which have become an increasing public health problem because this population increases. Nevertheless, immigrants are less prone to seek help from professional resources to prevent and address their mental health problem. Although empirical findings suggested the crucial role of social capital in accessing professional help, research specific to immigrants in Ireland remains limited. This study aimed to examine whether social capital moderates the effect of mental distress on professional help-seeking behavior among immigrants in Ireland.

Methods: Data were drawn from the Healthy Ireland Survey, an ongoing nationally representative survey in Ireland. A total of 112 immigrants in Ireland were included, 58% of whom was females. 46.4% had completed tertiary education. Mental distress was constructed by depression, loneliness and functional limitation. The assessment of social capital involved social participation, social support and social network. Professional help-seeking behavior was measured by asking respondents whether they had a consultation with a health professional to address the changes in mental health. Apart from descriptive statistics and correlation analyses, structural equation modeling (SEM) with latent variables and interaction terms was performed to investigate the moderating effect of social capital between mental distress and professional help-seeking behavior.

Results: Results revealed that only 36.4% of the respondents have sought professional help for their mental health problems. After controlling for confounding factors, there is a trend that greater mental distress was related to an increase in professional help-seeking behavior. Furthermore, social capital moderated and amplified the association between mental distress and professional help-seeking behavior.

Conclusions and Implications: The findings showed that social capital played an important moderating role in the relationship between immigrants' poor mental health and the likelihood of professional help-seeking, reflecting the need for further research and targeted interventions. It is crucial for community organizations and health professionals to actively strengthen social network within immigrant communities, which contributes to increasing immigrants' access to mental health services. Future research should delve deeper into the impact of various forms of social capital and immigrant-related factors on immigrants' health-seeking behavior and employ multiple research methods to fully understand their dynamic.