TY - JOUR PY - 2018// TI - Adolescents in crisis: a geographic exploration of help-seeking behavior using data from Crisis Text Line JO - Social science and medicine (1982) A1 - Thompson, Laura K. A1 - Sugg, Margaret M. A1 - Runkle, Jennifer R. SP - 69 EP - 79 VL - 215 IS - N2 - Nearly 3 out of 4 all lifelong mental disorders occur by the age of twenty-four. Remote crisis support holds great potential in filling a critical gap in complementing and expanding access to mental health services for acute episodes of mental distress in adolescents and young adults; yet little is understood about the individual factors that influence help-seeking behavior in this group. Recent evidence suggests technology-based mental health services have high acceptability among youth and may be used to treat anxiety and depression. The objective of this study was to examine county-level help-seeking behavior among adolescents and young adults using Crisis Text Line (CTL). CTL is a free, text-based crisis counseling service that has been available nationally since 2013. Spatial error regression was used to (1) identify the individual-level factors that correlate with help-seeking behavior for depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and (2) to explore the geographic trends in text-based help-seeking behavior between adolescents and young adults across the rural-urban continuum. Increased rates of text-based help-seeking occurred in counties with higher mean household incomes, higher divorce rates, and lower residential stability. Rurality was the strongest predictor for low rates of help-seeking, and this finding is particularly concerning in light of elevated rates of suicide among rural counties. Rural communities, particularly those with low support-seeking behavior and comparatively high suicide rates, should be the target of future research and outreach.

Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0277-9536 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.08.025 ID - ref1 ER -