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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sociol.
Sec. Migration and Society
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1265353
This article is part of the Research Topic Social Capital and Immigrant Wellbeing in the Digital Age View all 4 articles

Facilitators and barriers to mental health help-seeking in Indian immigrant youth in Gauteng, South Africa

Provisionally accepted
Timmy Joji Timmy Joji 1Curwyn Mapaling Curwyn Mapaling 2*
  • 1 Community of Psychosocial Research, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
  • 2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    According to international literature, Indian immigrants tend to severely underutilise mental health services. There is, however, a lack of local research on the experiences of Indian immigrant youth, and their experiences around mental health help-seeking. The aim of this study was, therefore, to identify the facilitators and barriers preventing or prompting helpseeking in the Indian Immigrant youth population by evaluating the personal and lived experiences of Indian immigrant youth in South Africa. Participants were recruited through purposive sampling, and the data collection was performed through online interviews that explored the participants' lived experiences. Using thematic analysis, five categories of facilitators and four categories of barriers were identified. It is hoped that an improved understanding of the barriers and facilitators will also allow other Indian immigrant youth to manage their help-seeking process while increasing awareness about others in the community with similar experiences.

    Keywords: Indian immigrants, Help-seeking, Mental Health, Youth, South Africa

    Received: 22 Jul 2023; Accepted: 09 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Joji and Mapaling. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Curwyn Mapaling, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, 2006, South Africa

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.