Understanding the intention and behavior of psychological help-seeking among Chinese college students using theory of planned behavior: a three-month follow-up study.

Underutilization of mental health services is common and associated with substantial suffering, mental disorders and death. The present study aimed to explore factors significantly affecting the professional psychological help-seeking behavior based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). A sample of 597 Chinese college students recruited online completed the questionnaires, which measured four constructs of TPB including help-seeking intention, attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control in December 2020. Help-seeking behaviors were evaluated three months later in March 2021. A two-step structural equation modeling procedure was used to test the TPB model. Findings show that partially consistent with TPB, more positive attitudes about seeking professional help (Β = .258, p = .001) and higher perceived behavioral control (Β = .504, p < .001) directly predicted higher intention to seek mental health services, and perceived behavioral control (Β = .230, p = .006) directly predicted help-seeking behavior. However, behavioral intention (Β = -.017, p = .830) did not statistically significantly predict help-seeking behavior, while subjective norm (Β = .047, p = .356) did not predict help-seeking intention as well. The model accounted for 49.9% of the variance modeling help-seeking intention and 12.4% of the variance modeling help-seeking behavior. The results revealed the importance of attitude and perceived behavioral control in predicting help-seeking intention and behavior among Chinese college students and indicated that there existed a gap between intention and actual help-seeking behavior.

Can Mindfulness-Based Training Improve Positive Emotion and Cognitive Ability in Chinese Non-clinical Population? A Pilot Study.

OBJECTIVE: Based on eastern philosophy, mindfulness is becoming popular for human being's mental health and well-being in western countries. In this study, we proposed to explore the effectiveness and potential pathway of mindfulness-based training (MBT) on Chinese Non-clinical higher education students' cognition and emotion. METHODS: A paired control design was used. 48 higher education students (24 in MBT group, 24 in control group) were recruited in the study. The MBT group engaged in a 12-week MBT. A package of measurements, including sustained attention tasks (The Continuous Performance Test, CPT), executive function task (Stroop) for cognitive functions, the self-reported mindfulness levels (The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, MAAS) and emotion (The Profile of Mood States, POMS), were apply for all participants at baseline and every 4 weeks during next 12 weeks. RESULTS: There were no differences in baseline demographic variables between two groups. Over the 12-week training, participants assigned to MBT group had a significantly greater reduction in CPT reaction time (Cohen's d 0.72), significantly greater improvement in positive emotion (Vigor-Activity, VA) (Cohen's d 1.08) and in MAAS (Cohen's d 0.49) than those assigned to control group. And, MAAS at 4th week could significantly predict the CPT RT and VA at 8th week in the MBT group. VA at 4th week could significantly predict the CPT RT at 8th week (B = 4.88, t = 2.21, p = 0.034, R2 = 0.35). CONCLUSION: This study shows the efficiency of 12-week MBT on Chinese Non-clinical students' cognition and emotion. Mindfulness training may impact cognition and emotion through the improvement in mindfulness level, and may impact cognition through the improvement in positive emotion.

The Transfer Effects of Cognitive Training on Working Memory Among Chinese Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objectives: To explore the transfer effects of cognitive training on working memory among older Chinese adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: Sixty-two MCI participants aged more than 60 years old were recruited by holding recruitment sessions in communities in China [33 for cognitive training, and 29 for mental leisure activities (MLA) control]. Cognitive functions, including working memory, execution function, reasoning ability, verbal ability, ability of daily living, were measured at three time-points (baseline, post-training and 3 months after training). Results: Compared to the MLA control, the cognitive training group showed significant effects in both the trained (working memory) and untrained (execution function and ability of daily living) domains. The effects of cognitive training on overall cognitive function, working memory and daily life ability of daily living of MCI could be maintained for at least 3 months, even without the cognitive training. Besides, complete mediating effects of cognitive training were found in executive function through working memory and working memory in ability of daily living though executive function, which suggests the presence of transfer effect of cognitive training. Conclusions: The present study supported that cognitive training could effectively improve working memory in elders with MCI. The training effects on working memory could transfer to other untrained areas (such as executive function), which also improved the comprehensive ability (ability of daily living). And the effects of training could largely persist for 3 months.