The help-seeking process for parents of children with anxiety : a grounded theory

Mental health is a fundamental component of overall health and well-being. However, a lack of service utilization for children and adolescents with mental health concerns is well documented in several countries. Anxiety is the most common mental health disorder across the lifespan. Multiple barriers to treatment have been identified in the literature and several models of help-seeking have been proposed. However, a unifying theory or model of help-seeking for child mental health services is lacking. One step to improve rates of service use for children with anxiety is to better understand the help-seeking process that parents engage in when seeking services. A Straussian grounded theory approach was used to investigate the process that parents engage in when seeking professional mental health services for their children struggling with anxiety. Ten semistructured interviews were conducted with parents, in addition to follow-up sessions to discuss additional or clarifying questions and incorporate participant feedback on the emerging theory. From the findings, being an advocate emerged as the core category. The core category facilitated parents’ movement through five phases of the help-seeking process for their children with anxiety: (a) recognizing anxiety as problematic, (b) deciding to seek professional mental health services, (c) initiating professional mental health services, (d) receiving professional mental health services, and (e) if necessary, reinitiating or being redirected to other professional mental health services. Movement through the phases was nonlinear and resulted from complex interactions of a variety of factors and environments. Parents often found themselves stuck in a loop, cycling between phases. The findings are contextualized within the extant literature, and implications for practice and policy are discussed.