The role of prejudice in maintaining and changing attitudes of high school students toward seeking professional psychological help

Cilj istraživanja bio je utvrditi uspješnost provedene intervencije na promjenu stava srednjoškolaca prema traženju profesionalne psihološke pomoći uzimajući u obzir njihov spol i vrstu škole koju pohađaju. Uzorak se sastoji od 379 učenika zagrebačkih srednjih škola, od kojih je 192 učenika strukovnih škola, a 187 učenika gimnazija. Od ukupnog broja sudionika njih 192 navelo je spol, od čega je 62 sudionika muškog spola, a 130 ženskog spola. Svim sudionicima dan je upitnik Stavova o traženju profesionalne psihološke pomoći (Mackenzie, Knox, Gekoski i Macaulay, 2004), dok je samo sudionicima eksperimentalne skupine prije upitnika dan kratak tekst koji opovrgava neke uvriježene predrasude i negativne stereotipe o psihološkim intervencijama i osobama koje traže takvu vrstu pomoći. Rezultati istraživanja pokazuju kako je provedena intervencija učinila sudionike sklonijima traženju psihološke pomoći te psihološki otvorenijima. Nadalje, rezultati pokazuju kako su djevojke u odnosu na mladiće statistički značajno sklonije potražiti psihološku pomoć, ravnodušnije prema stigmi te psihološki otvorenije. Također, analiza varijance pokazala je kako nema statistički značajne razlike između gimnazijalaca i učenika strukovnih škola u pogledu spremnosti prema traženju psihološke pomoći, psihološkoj otvorenosti te ravnodušnosti prema stigmi. Intervencija se pokazala učinkovitijom u mijenjaju stavova mladića u odnosu na djevojke i to isključivo u pogledu veće ravnodušnosti prema stigmi. Također, intervencija se pokazala učinkovitijom kod gimnazijalaca u odnosu na učenike strukovnih škola u pogledu veće sklonosti prema traženju psihološke pomoći i ravnodušnosti prema stigmi.The objective of this study was to determine the success of intervention that was designed in order to change attitudes of high school students toward seeking professional psychological help. The gender and type of school that participants are attending were taken into consideration. The sample consists of 379 high school students in Zagreb, of whom 192 are attending vocational school and 187 are attending gymnasium. Out of total number of participants, 192 listed their gender, of whom 62 are male and 130 are famale. All participants were given the Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services (Mackenzie, Knox, Gekoski i Macaulay, 2004). Before filling out the inventory, only the participants of the experimental group were given a short text that confutes some of the prevalent prejudice and negative stereotypes about psychological interventions and people who are seeking psychological help. The results of the research show that intervention made participants more inclined to seek psychological help and psychologically more open. Furthermore, the results show that girls are significantly more inclined to seek psychological help, more indifferent to stigma and more psychologically open than boys. Analysis of variance has shown that there is no statistically significant difference between students who are attending vocational school and students who are attending gymnasium in terms of help-seeking propensity, psychological openness and indifference to stigma. Intervention has been shown to be more effective in changing the boys' attitude toward seeking psychological than girls'. Intervention made difference only in terms of greater indifference to stigma. The intervention also proved to be more effective in changing attitude of students who are attending gymnasium compared to students who are attending vocational school. Intervention made difference in terms of greater indifference to stigma and greater help-seeking propensity.