Medicine and Medical Sciences

This paper investigated attitude of secondary school students towards mental health help seeking behavior in Gem Sub County, Kenya. It adapted descriptive design with a sample of 346 students selected by stratified random sampling from 45 schools. The closed ended questionnaires and interview schedule were used to collect data. Reliability coefficient of the instruments was .78. Data on descriptive and inferential statistics was analyzed by statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS) software. The research objective established the attitude of secondary school students towards help seeking behavior. Findings showed that secondary school students had positive attitude towards help seeking behavior (M=41.17, SD=5.66) girls and (M=40.24, SD=6.97) for boys. There was a non-significant difference in means (t= .023, p= .184). The interviews schedule showed 55% positive and 44% negative attitude towards help seeking behavior. The study concluded that in psychological distress, both boys and girls would have a positive attitude towards help seeking behavior. It recommended peer counseling programs in schools to maintain positive attitude of students towards help seeking behavior. These findings may be significant to educational stakeholders’ in making mental health policies and programs for schools

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