Low rates of psychological help seeking among young males with depression havereceived significant research attention. However, most prior studies have focused on why the population seeks or does not seek psychological help from formal/professional sources. The present study examined the beliefs of 193 young male college students to predict their intentions to seek psychological help from friends, the most preferred source of help for this group. The study assessed the constructs of the reasoned action approach and their underlying beliefs, taking two possible contributing factors to men's lower help-seeking into account: masculine ideology and perception of depression as masculine or feminine. Results revealed that intention to seek help from friends for depression was associated only with injunctive and descriptive norms and their underlying beliefs surrounding three referents: friends (injunctive and descriptive), fathers (injunctive only), and other family members (descriptive only). Relevant normative beliefs surrounding those referents were not sensitive to young male college students' masculine ideology and its interaction with depression perception. These findings, in conjunction with the results of the audience segment analyses indicating the importance of the opinions and behaviors of specific referent groups, suggest that injunctive normative beliefs with father and friend referents and descriptive normative beliefs with friend referents are key beliefs that persuasive health messages should focus more on to promote help-seeking from friends among young male college students with depressive disorders, regardless of their adherence to traditional masculine norms and perception of depression as masculine or feminine.
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