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Ufuk-U_niversitesi-SBE-Dergisi-S-ayı-5-kopya

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(Johnson 2001; Türküm, 2005). Johnson (2001) found that femininity has an influence on theconfidence of professionals’ abilities to help with psychological problems. In the study ofTürküm (2005), the positive help seeking attitudes of androgynous students who had bothfemininity and masculinity personality traits were found higher compared to both masculineand undefined students. In the same study the help seeking attitudes of feminine students werefound to be more positive than both masculine and undefined students.In a study done with 137 male college students from Midwestern University in theUnited States whose age range from 17 to 66 (Levant, Wimer, Williams, Smalley & Noronha,2009), it was found that the masculinity variables which are greater endorsement of traditionalmasculinity ideology, conformity to masculine norms, and a higher degree of gender roleconflict had an influence on attitudes towards seeking psychological help. In the same studymasculinity variables were associated with negative attitudes towards seeking psychologicalhelp.Ang et al. (2004) found different results compared to the other studies which confirmthe influence of sex role orientation on attitudes towards help seeking and they found thatmasculinity did not significantly affect help-seeking attitudes. Moreover, they found thatstudents with low femininity scores had less positive attitudes towards professional helpseekingthan students with high femininity scores, especially with regards to beingstigmatized and more sensitive about the opinions of others. Another study was conducted byJudd, Komiti and Jackson (2008) to understand why being female assisted help seekingbehavior. They found that women had higher rates on help-seeking for mental healthproblems than men. They also affirmed that this difference might be a reflection of genderrole differences. In the same study they have asserted that men’s social status, greater controland decision-making power may influence acceptance of a diagnosis of mental disorder andtheir difficulty in expressing feelings and emotions may influence their help seeking forpsychological problems (Amit, Brian, Murray & Jitender, 2009; Chan & Hayashi, 2010; Juddet al, 2008).The age difference was also found to be another factor that influences the help seekingbehavior (Shea & Yeh 2008). There are many contradictory findings about the effects of ageon help seeking attitudes. In the literature, whereas some studies have found that older peoplehave low intentions to seek help (Westerhof, Maessen, De Brujin & Smets, 2008) andnegative attitudes towards help seeking (Lebowitz & Niederehe, 1992), other studies haveconcluded that older individuals are associated with more positive attitudes toward helpseeking compared to younger individuals (Mackenzie et al, 2006; Svensson et al., 2009).In a cross national study, which was carried out with the participation of 262 Muslimwomen,it was found that younger participants, whose age range from 19 to 20, had lesspositive attitudes towards seeking professional help than older ones, whose age range from 21to more than 22. In the same study, researchers attributed this difference to insufficientknowledge about mental health problems and less awareness about the availability of mentalhealth services (Al-Krenawi, Graham, Dean, & Eltaiba, 2004). In a recent study, whichinvolved Turkish university students, it was reported that students between the ages of 24 and29

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