Nowhere Else to Go: Help Seeking Online and Maladaptive Decisional Styles

Abstract

Many high-risk individuals do not use mental health services. This is a concern for mental health and suicide prevention efforts, and requires an examination of the role of decision-making style upon willingness to seek help. To consider whether defensive avoidance influenced willingness to engage with Professionals or online assistance, participants (N = 189) answered an online survey, completing the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire and WHOQOLBref. Participants were then asked their preferred source of assistance, and their subsequent behaviour (time, clicks) was tracked on a debrief page listing sources of assistance. Overall quality of life was used to determine risk. Multiple regression indicated that people with poorer quality of life had poorer decisional styles. A 2 × 4 Risk by Preferred Source of Assistance MANOVA found that: (1) people seeking online assistance were hypervigilant procrastinators; (2) self-sufficiency and an unwillingness to seek professional assistance by those at risk was linked to panic and confirmed behaviourally from the increased number of clicks on a debrief page. Decision making styles can influence quality of life, and help-seeking behaviors, and this has implications for outreach towards those with poor engagement with offline mental health services.