Parent Wellbeing, Youth Help-Seeking

Background and Purpose:

Globally, suicide is the third leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 15-29, and cases of youth with clinically elevated depression and anxiety symptoms have doubled since the pre-pandemic period. Latin America, specifically Mexico, is no exception to this growing public concern. Children in Mexico – as with children elsewhere - are significantly affected by parental stress; however, the combination of problematic family dynamics coupled with the unique cultural stigmatization of help-seeking behaviors in Mexico compounds this challenge. Therefore, we sought to study the impact of parent mental wellbeing on adolescent health seeking behavior among parent-child dyads in Mexico.

Methods:

This was a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional study looking at parent-child dyads in households across Mexico. Participants were recruited via email if they met the inclusion criteria (a parent/guardian with a 14-17 year old adolescent). The interested participants were directed to a study information document, consent forms, and two surveys (one for the parent, and one for the adolescent). Survey items consisted of measures looking at things such as family functioning, health literacy, mental and physical health outcomes, and suicide stigma. Our primary variables of interest included the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) and the General Help-Seeking Questionnaire. Our final sample included 373 parent-child dyads (N = 746).

Results:

Regression results showed a significant positive relationship between high parent mental wellbeing and adolescents' likelihood of seeking help, especially from family or community sources. Conversely, parental mental distress negatively influenced adolescents' help-seeking behaviors, highlighting the crucial role parental emotional health plays in adolescent mental health outcomes. Additionally, adolescents who had taken health education classes showed increased willingness to seek help, whereas factors like parental income and gender did not significantly predict help-seeking behaviors.

Conclusions and Implications:

This study advances our understanding of unique factors influencing help-seeking behaviors among youth in Mexico. Given our main finding that parent mental wellbeing positively influences adolescent help-seeking, future research using randomized samples throughout Mexico should be conducted to see if these findings are replicated among other populations. If so, communities and policy makers may consider confronting using holistic, family and community-focused approaches to addressing parent mental health and adolescent help-seeking behaviors.