Bridging the Need-To-Access Gap: Factors Shaping Parents’ Movement Through the Mental Health Help-Seeking Process for Youth

Objective Models of youth mental health help-seeking emphasize parents’ central role in recognizing concerns, deciding to seek help, and accessing services. However, many parents who perceive a need for care do not access services. This study investigated whether parents’ characteristics were related to parents’ status in the youth mental health help-seeking pathway. Method Parents ( N = 186; 25.8% Black or African American, 25.3% Hispanic or Latino, 15.6% Asian) completed online self-report questionnaires assessing sociodemographic characteristics and mental health-related knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs. Based on their responses to service use history and intentions to seek treatment, parents were classified as need perceivers , treatment intenders , or treatment utilizers . Results White parents were more likely than Black/African American and Asian parents to be treatment intenders or treatment utilizers rather than need perceivers . Parents were more likely to be treatment utilizers than need perceivers as parental self-efficacy increased and perceived irrelevance of treatment decreased. Discussion Findings highlight potential parent-level and systemic factors relevant to youth mental health service use. Efforts to support access may benefit from addressing parents’ confidence in seeking care, misconceptions about treatment relevance, and racial and ethnic inequities in the youth mental health help-seeking process.