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National data indicates that engineering students are less likely than students in other academic disciplines to seek professional help for their mental health distress. Without professional intervention, mental health symptoms can worsen and become more challenging to treat. Therefore, this study uses a quantitative approach to investigate the beliefs that first-year engineering students hold about seeking mental health treatment and the influence of these beliefs on their intention to seek professional help. This study addresses the following research questions: 1) Which factors are most strongly associated with first-year engineering students’ intention to seek mental health treatment? 2) What beliefs about the outcomes of professional mental healthcare are most predictive of students’ intention to seek treatment? This study used a self-report survey instrument that employed the Integrated Behavioral Model (IBM) as an empirically supported theoretical framework to identify the beliefs that most accurately predict behavior. In December 2021, a survey was conducted in the first-year engineering program at a large public university with a predominantly White population (n = 452). The self-report survey instrument included measures of mental health help-seeking intention, attitude, perceived norm, personal agency, and outcome beliefs guided by the IBM. Respondents exhibited high scores on scales measuring their attitude towards seeking help, perceived control, and self-efficacy. This suggests that, on average, first-year engineering students had positive perceptions of their seeking help, felt in control of their decisions to seek help, and were confident in their ability to seek help. Students had lower scores for perceived norms, meaning they were less likely to believe that seeking help was supported by those who are important to them. Additionally, less than half of the students indicated they would intend to seek help if they experienced mental health distress. Students’ perception that others would expect them to seek help (i.e., their perceived norm injunctive) was the strongest predictor of intention to seek help, followed by their attitude toward seeking help. The specific outcome beliefs that were negatively correlated with intention to seek help were that seeking help would: 1) go against the expectations of the engineering community, 2) be a sign of weakness or an admission of defeat, and 3) result in poor treatment or discrimination from the mental health professional. Conversely, the outcome beliefs most positively correlated with intention were that seeking help would: 1) help me feel supported, 2) help me improve my coping skills, 3) make me feel better, 4) help me find a solution to my problem, and 5) help me gain a better understanding of my mental health concern. The findings of this study offer valuable insights into the beliefs of first-year engineering students towards seeking professional treatment for mental health concerns. These findings will inform the development of targeted interventions to improve help-seeking for mental health. 

Abstract BackgroundEngineering students encounter high levels of stress, which may negatively impact their mental health. Nevertheless, engineering students who experience mental health distress are less likely than their peers to seek professional help, even when controlling for gender and race/ethnicity. PurposeWe examined beliefs that undergraduate engineering students have about barriers and facilitators to seeking professional help for their mental health. We also sought to identify cultural and systemic factors within and beyond engineering that might affect help‐seeking. Together, these beliefs influence students' sense of personal agency around seeking mental health care. MethodWe implemented a pragmatic qualitative design that incorporated the integrated behavioral model to investigate engineering students' (N = 33) professional mental health help‐seeking beliefs. We used thematic analysis to analyze help‐seeking beliefs and perceived barriers and facilitators that students described during interviews. ResultsWe identified four themes: Navigating the system impacts personal agency; sacrifices associated with help‐seeking act as a barrier; engineering culture acts as a barrier to help‐seeking; and student confidence in help‐seeking varies significantly. These themes portray the effect of perceived barriers and facilitators on students' personal agency for accessing mental health care. Our findings have implications for engineering departments and university counseling centers that want to minimize barriers to help‐seeking. ConclusionsEngineering stakeholders must improve access to professional help for engineering students. Implementing changes to normalize help‐seeking behaviors, enhance personal agency, and facilitate engagement with mental health resources will create better conditions for engineers. Further research is necessary to understand how other beliefs (e.g., attitudes, perceived norms) inform the relationships between student mental health, professional help seeking, and engineering culture.