Anxiety and Self-reliance on Substance Use and Treatment Seeking Attitudes
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Issue Date
2015-04-10
Authors
Glass, Jamie S.
Publisher
Keywords
Anxiety , Substance Use , Treatment-Seeking , Self-Reliance , Young People
Abstract
Anxiety and substance use are prevalent among young people in the United States (Kessler et al., 2005). Prior research has found that there is a correlation between anxiety and substance use (Cranford, Eisenberg & Serras, 2009), and anxiety may precede the use of alcohol and drugs (Swendson et al., 2010). The need for self-reliance is commonly reported as a barrier for young people to seek mental health treatment (Gulliver, Griffiths & Christensen, 2010). There were two goals to this study: first to examine whether young adults ages 18-25, who present with symptoms of anxiety and employ strategies of self-reliance, will be more likely to use drugs and alcohol and second less likely to seek treatment. Participants completed an online survey including the Patient Health Questionnaire (Spitzer, Kroenke & Williams, 1999), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (Babor, Higgins-Biddle, Saunders & Monteiro, 2001), Drug Abuse Screening Test-10 (Skinner, 1982), Barriers to Help-Seeking Scale (Mansfield, Addis & Courtenay, 2005), and Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services (Mackenzie, Gekoski & Knox, 2006). Multiple regression analyses will be used to evaluate the contributions that symptoms of anxiety, the need for self-reliance and gender have on the use of drugs and alcohol and the likelihood of seeking mental health treatment. This study will provide empirical evidence on the relationships between symptoms of anxiety, the use of drugs and alcohol, treatment seeking, and the effect that the need for self-reliance and gender have on these relationships. This study is currently in the data collection phase.