| Objective: Despite the prevalence and negative consequences of mental health issue among elite athletes,studies suggest many do not seek professional help,some barriers exist in the process of help-seeking such as high level of stigma,lack of mental health knowledge and so on.Therefore,understanding barriers and facilitators to helpseeking is imperative to reduce the burden of mental health symptoms and disorders.Study 1 aims to examine the reliability and validity of the Chinese translated multicomponent mental health literacy scale(MMHL)among Chinese professional adult athletes and sports institute adult student.Study 2 aims to explore the relationship between mental health literacy and attitudes towards seeking professional psychological in Chinese elite athlete,as well as to test the mediating effect of stigma for professional psychological help.Methods: In study 1,320 athletes(18-40 years old)and 252 students(28-24 years old)were invited to complete the 26-item Chinese translated MMHL,the Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help-Seeking-Short Form(ATSPPH-SF),the Questionnaire of Stigma for Seeking Professional Psychological Help(SSPPH),the General Help-Seeking Questionnaire(GHSQ).In addition,95 professional adult athletes and 82 sports institute students were invited to complete the Chinese translated MMHL four weeks later to evaluate the test-retest reliability of this scale.In Study 2,233 elite athletes(M = 18-31 years)were recruited as participants from Guangdong Province.They were invited to complete a survey containing Chinese-translated MMHL,ATSPPH-SF,SSPPH questionnaires across three waves of assessment in June,September,and December 2020.Cross sectional study and longitudinal study were analyzed by SPSS process and M-plus,respectively.Results: In study 1,confirmatory factor analysis(CFA)results confirmed that the Chinese translated MMHL version had a second-order model,and good construct validity.Except Test-retest reliability was acceptable,internal consistency reliability,convergence validity,discriminative validity,and criteria-related validity were satisfactory for all subscales across each of samples.In study 2,cross sectional study found mental health literacy can indirectly influence the attitude of help-seeking by stigma of help-seeking,and the similar effects of self-stigma and public stigma were tested.Furthermore,by establishing a structural equation mode of longitudinal study,it indicated that mental health literacy can indirectly influence the attitude of help-seeking by public stigma for in the long term;self-stigma could predict mental health literacy for a certain period of time;both self-stigma and public stigma had a long-term stable predictive effect on the attitude of help-seeking;no evidence was found that for mental health literacy could predict self-stigma and the attitude of help-seeking directly;Conclusion: The Chinese-translated MMHL is a reliable and valid self-report instrument for measuring mental health literacy level among Chinese professional adult athletes and sports institute adult students.Additionally,professional psychological help-seeking stigma is the main factor affecting attitude to professional help-seeking.These results suggest focusing on increasing mental health literacy and reducing stigma may promote help-seeking intention for mental health symptoms and disorder. |
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