Psychological Distress and Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help among Transwomen in Indonesia

Evelyn Tandias; Theresia Indira Shanti

doi:10.22146/jpsi.75026

Psychological Distress and Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help among Transwomen in Indonesia

https://doi.org/10.22146/jpsi.75026

Evelyn Tandias⁽¹⁾, Theresia Indira Shanti^(2*)

(1) Faculty of Psychology, Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia
(2) Faculty of Psychology, Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

Transwomen are one of the minority groups in Indonesia vulnerable to a high level of psychological distress. The level of psychological distress can indicate the need to seek psychological help. The most basic component of seeking help is attitude. Without a positive attitude, individuals are less likely to have the intention of seeking help and do seeking help. This study aimed to investigate the level of psychological distress, attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, and the relationship between symptoms of psychological distress with attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help in 117 samples of transwomen in Indonesia. Results indicated that 72% of participants were classified as having a high level of psychological distress. A negative association between anxiety symptoms and psychological openness indicated that the more symptoms of anxiety that participants were experiencing, the less likely they were to open up about their psychological problems.

Keywords

Attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help; transwomen; psychological distress

Full Text:

PDF

References

Arora, P. G., Metz, K., & Carlson, C. I. (2016). Attitudes toward professional psychological help seeking in South Asian students: Role of stigma and gender. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 44(4). https://doi.org/10.1002/jmcd.12053

Bariola, E., Lyons, A., Leonard, W., Pitts, M., Badcock, P., & Couch, M. (2015). Demographic and psychosocial factors associated with psychological distress and resilience among transgender individuals. American Journal of Public Health, 105(10). https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302763

Bartlett, J. E., Kotrlik, J. W. K. J. W., & Higgins, C. (2001). Organizational research: Determining appropriate sample size in survey research appropriate sample size in survey research. Information Technology, Learning, and Performance Journal, 19(1), 43.

Boas, A. A. V., & Morin, E. M. (2014). Psychological well-being and psychological distress for professors in Brazil and Canada. Revista de Administracao Mackenzie, 15(6). https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-69712014/administracao.v15n6p201-219

Budge, S. L., Adelson, J. L., & Howard, K. A. S. (2013). Anxiety and depression in transgender individuals: The roles of transition status, loss, social support, and coping. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 81(3). https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031774

Cardemil, E. V., Nelson, T., & Keefe, K. (2015). Racial and ethnic disparities in depression treatment. In Current Opinion in Psychology (Vol. 4). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.01.021

Chen, P., Liu, X. J., Wang, X. Q., Yang, B. X., Ruan, J., & Liu, Z. (2020). Attitude toward seeking professional psychological help among community-dwelling population in China. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00417

Clement, S., Schauman, O., Graham, T., Maggioni, F., Evans-Lacko, S., Bezborodovs, N., Morgan, C., Rüsch, N., Brown, J. S. L., & Thornicroft, G. (2015). What is the impact of mental health-related stigma on help-seeking? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies. In Psychological Medicine (Vol. 45, Issue 1). https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291714000129

Corder, G. W., & Foreman, D. I. (2009). Nonparametric statistics for non-statisticians: A step-by-step approach. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Derogatis, L. R., Lipman, R. S., Rickels, K., Uhlenhuth, E. H., & Covi, L. (1974). The Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL): A self‐report symptom inventory. Behavioral Science, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/bs.3830190102

Fauk, N. K., Merry, M. S., Putra, S., Sigilipoe, M. A., Crutzen, R., & Mwanri, L. (2019). Perceptions among transgender women of factors associated with the access to HIV/ AIDS-related health services in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. PLoS ONE, 14(8). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221013

Franzen, J., Jermann, F., Ghisletta, P., Rudaz, S., Bondolfi, G., & Tran, N. T. (2021). Psychological distress and well-being among students of health disciplines: The importance of academic satisfaction. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18042151

Goldbach, C., Knutson, D., & Milton, D. C. (2021). LGBTQ+ people and COVID-19: The importance of resilience during a pandemic. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000463

Griffiths, K. M., Crisp, D. A., Barney, L., & Reid, R. (2011). Seeking help for depression from family and friends: A qualitative analysis of perceived advantages and disadvantages. BMC Psychiatry, 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-11-196

Hoffman, B. (2014). An overview of depression among transgender women. In Depression Research and Treatment (Vol. 2014). https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/394283

Lytle, M. C., Silenzio, V. M. B., Homan, C. M., Schneider, P., & Caine, E. D. (2018). Suicidal and help-seeking behaviors among youth in an online lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning social network. Journal of Homosexuality, 65(13). https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2017.1391552

Mackenzie, C. S., Knox, V. J., Gekoski, W. L., & Macaulay, H. L. (2004). An adaptation and extension of the attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help scale. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34(11), 2410–2433. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2004.tb01984.x

McDermott, E., Hughes, E., & Rawlings, V. (2018). Norms and normalisation: understanding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youth, suicidality and help-seeking. Culture, Health and Sexuality, 20(2), 156–172. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2017.1335435

McNair, R. P., & Bush, R. (2016). Mental health help seeking patterns and associations among Australian same sex attracted women, trans and gender diverse people: A survey-based study. BMC Psychiatry, 16(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-016-0916-4

Mesidor, J. K., & Sly, K. F. (2014). Mental health help-seeking intentions among international and African American college students: An application of the theory of planned behavior. Journal of International Students, 4(2), 137–149. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v4i2.474

Mirowsky, J., & Ross, C. E. (2003). Social causes of psychological distress (2nd ed.). Walter de Gruyter.

Mitchell, E., Lazuardi, E., Rowe, E., Anintya, I., Wirawan, D. N., Wisaksana, R., Subronto, Y. W., Prameswari, H. D., Kaldor, J., & Bell, S. (2019). Barriers and enablers to HIV care among waria (transgender women) in Indonesia: A qualitative study. AIDS Education and Prevention, 31(6). https://doi.org/10.1521/aeap.2019.31.6.538

Mojtabai, R., Evans-Lacko, S., Schomerus, G., & Thornicroft, G. (2016). Attitudes toward mental health help seeking as predictors of future help-seeking behavior and use of mental health treatments. Psychiatric Services, 67(6). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201500164

Nelson, T., Ernst, S. C., Tirado, C., Fisse, J. L., & Moreno, O. (2021). Psychological distress and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological services among black women: The role of past mental health treatment. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-021-00983-z

Nuttbrock, L., Bockting, W., Rosenblum, A., Hwahng, S., Mason, M., Macri, M., & Becker, J. (2014). Gender abuse, depressive symptoms, and substance use among transgender women: A 3-year prospective study. American Journal of Public Health, 104(11). https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302106

Perrin, P. B., Sutter, M. E., Trujillo, M. A., Henry, R. S., & Pugh, M. (2020). The minority strengths model: Development and initial path analytic validation in racially/ethnically diverse LGBTQ individuals. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 76(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22850

Rickwood, D., & Thomas, K. (2012). Conceptual measurement framework for help-seeking for mental health problems. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 5, 173–183. https://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S38707

Rickwood, D., Thomas, K., & Bradford, S. (2012). Help-seeking measures in mental health: A rapid review. Sax Institute, August, 1–35. https://www.saxinstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/02_Help-seeking-measures-in-mental-health.pdf

Sandanger, I., Moum, T., Ingebrigtsen, G., Sørensen, T., Dalgard, O. S., & Bruusgaard, D. (1999). The meaning and significance of caseness: The Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 and the Composite International Diagnostic Interview II. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 34(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s001270050112

She, R., Mo, P. K. H., Cai, Y., Ma, T., Liu, Y., & Lau, J. T. F. (2021). Mental health service utilisation among transgender women sex workers who are at risk of mental health problems in Shenyang, China: An application of minority stress theory. Health and Social Care in the Community. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13501

Shetty, V., & Jain, T. (2016). Attitudes and stigma towards seeking professional psychological help among college going students. Indian Journal of Mental Health(IJMH), 3(2). https://doi.org/10.30877/ijmh.3.2.2016.202-207

Tan, K. K. H., Ellis, S. J., Schmidt, J. M., Byrne, J. L., & Veale, J. F. (2020). Mental health inequities among transgender people in Aotearoa New Zealand: Findings from the counting ourselves survey. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082862

Turnip, S. S., & Hauff, E. (2007). Household roles, poverty and psychological distress in internally displaced persons affected by violent conflicts in Indonesia. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 42(12), 997–1004. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-007-0255-3

Wild, D., Grove, A., Martin, M., Eremenco, S., McElroy, S., Verjee-Lorenz, A., & Erikson, P. (2005). Principles of good practice for the translation and cultural adaptation process for patient-reported outcomes (PRO) measures: Report of the ISPOR Task Force for Translation and Cultural Adaptation. Value in Health, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1524-4733.2005.04054.x

Yamauchi, T., Suka, M., & Yanagisawa, H. (2020). Help-seeking behavior and psychological distress by age in a nationally representative sample of Japanese employees. Journal of Epidemiology, 30(6). https://doi.org/10.2188/jea.JE20190042

Zay Hta, M. K., Tam, C. L., Au, S. Y., Yeoh, G., Tan, M. M., Lee, Z. Y., & Yong, V. V. (2021). Barriers and facilitators to professional mental health help-seeking behavior: Perspective of Malaysian LGBT individuals. Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 15(1), 38–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/15538605.2021.1868373

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/jpsi.75026

Article Metrics

Abstract views : 2235 |

Refbacks

There are currently no refbacks.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Published by Faculty of Psychology Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia Building D-6^th Floor No. D-606. Jl. Sosio Humaniora No. 1, Bulaksumur Yogyakarta, 55281
Email: jurnalpsikologi@ugm.ac.id
Phone/whatsApp: +6289527548628

View My Stats

Username
Password
Remember me