In plain language
When teenagers are struggling emotionally — or even having suicidal thoughts — whether they reach out for help can be a matter of life and death. Yet there is a painful irony: the people who most need support may be the least equipped to ask for it. This study asked whether adolescents who find it hard to identify, describe, and manage their own emotions (in other words, who are lower in emotional competence) are less willing to seek help, as had previously been observed in adults.
Two hundred and seventeen adolescents from a private school completed measures of emotional competence, help-seeking intentions for personal–emotional problems and suicidal thoughts, hopelessness, and social support. The results showed that adolescents low in emotional competence had the lowest intentions of seeking help from informal sources such as family and friends and from some formal sources such as mental health professionals — and the highest intentions of seeking help from no-one at all. Importantly, these links could not be entirely explained by social support, hopelessness, or gender: even teenagers with high-quality social support were less inclined to use it if they were poor at dealing with emotions.
One age-related twist emerged: difficulty identifying and describing emotions was linked to higher help-seeking intentions among younger adolescents but lower intentions among older adolescents. The findings suggest that teaching young people emotional skills may be an important step in helping them make use of the support around them.
Key findings
- Adolescents low in emotional competence reported the lowest intentions to seek help from informal sources (family and friends) and from some formal sources (e.g., mental health professionals).
- Low emotional competence was associated with the highest intentions to seek help from no-one, for both personal–emotional problems and suicidal ideation.
- Age moderated one relationship: difficulty identifying and describing emotions predicted higher help-seeking intentions among younger adolescents but lower intentions among older adolescents.
- Skill at managing others’ emotions was positively related to intentions to seek help from friends for both emotional problems (r = .27) and suicidal ideation (r = .18).
- Social support, hopelessness, and sex could not entirely explain the emotional competence–help-seeking relationships: even adolescents with high-quality social support intended to use it less if they were low in emotional competence.
- Adolescents were more willing to seek help from family and friends for personal–emotional problems than for suicidal thoughts, but more willing to approach a mental health professional for suicidal thoughts.
How to cite
APA
Ciarrochi, J., Wilson, C. J., Deane, F. P., & Rickwood, D. (2003). Do difficulties with emotions inhibit help-seeking in adolescence? The role of age and emotional competence in predicting help-seeking intentions. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 16(2), 103–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951507031000152632
BibTeX
@article{ciarrochi2003do,
title = {Do difficulties with emotions inhibit help-seeking in adolescence? The role of age and emotional competence in predicting help-seeking intentions},
author = {Ciarrochi, Joseph and Wilson, Coralie J. and Deane, Frank P. and Rickwood, Debra},
journal = {Counselling Psychology Quarterly},
year = {2003},
volume = {16},
number = {2},
pages = {103--120},
doi = {10.1080/0951507031000152632}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.