Locus of control, stigma and culture as determinants of psychological health-seeking behaviour among public university students in Ghana

Abstract

This study examined determinants of psychological health-seeking behaviour among students of selected public universities in Ghana. Specifically, the study investigated whether locus of control, stigma and culture have effects on the health-seeking behaviour of the respondents. The target population comprised 5,369 regular undergraduate students in four public universities in Ghana: University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University for Development Studies (UDS) and University of Cape Coast (UCC). A sample of 588 respondents was selected from the four public universities for the study which adopted the mixed methods research design, employed questionnaire and interview for data collection. Locus of control, stigma, culture and attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help short form (ATSPPHS-SF) scales were employed to explore the relationship between health-seeking behaviour and locus of control, stigmatization and culture. The independent ttest, ANOVA and the Structural Equation Model were the statistical tools for the data analysis, whilst the software packages for data analysis, editing, coding and computation was the Statistical Product and Service Solution (SPSS version 20). Findings revealed that age and gender have no significant influence on the health-seeking behaviour of the students, but geographical location has a significant effect. Also, each of the three independent variables (locus of control, stigmatisation and culture) significantly predicted the health seeking behaviour of the respondents. These findings call for counsellors to focus on anti-stigma campaigns, while paying critical attention to the cultural orientation and the personality profiles of their clients.