Does Gender Correlate with Psychological Health-Seeking Behaviour of Ghanaian University Students?

Abstract

This study examined gender as a determinant of psychological health-seeking behaviour among students at selected public universities in Ghana.  The target population comprised 5,369 regular undergraduate students in four public universities in Ghana: University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University for Development Studies (UDS) and University of Cape Coast (UCC). A sample of 588 respondents was selected from the four public universities for the study which adopted the cross-sectional survey method. Attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help short form (ATSPPHS-SF) scale was employed to explore the relationship between health-seeking behaviour and gender.  The independent t-test and chi-square test of association were the statistical tools employed for the data analysis, whilst the software package for data analysis, editing, coding and computation was the Statistical Product and Service Solution (SPSS version 20). The findings revealed that gender had no significant influence on the health-seeking behaviour of the students.  This finding calls for counsellors to pay critical attention to students of both genders in designing programmes and interventions aimed at improving the psychological health-seeking behaviour of students.

Keywords: Gender, psychological, health-seeking behaviour, public universities in Ghana.

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-31-09

Publication date: November 30^th 2023