Race differences in professional help seeking

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Abstract
Using data from two national surveys, findings from this research indicated that blacks were more likely than whites to seek help from mental health professionals, particularly for economic and physical health problems. Blacks also sought help more often than whites from other sources of professional help, such as teachers, lawyers, social workers and emergency rooms. On the other hand, whites were more likely to seek help from medical sources for all types of problems, and from clergy members. Research on professional help seeking has consistently shown that people seeking professional help for personal problems have sociocultural characteristics that differ in important ways from those who do not seek professional help (Greenley & Mechanic, 1976; Kessler, Brown, & Broman, 1981; Veroff, Kulka, & Douvan, 1981b). This research has documented the role of age, sex, and socioeconomic factors in patterns of professional help seeking. Studies have shown income to be declining in significance in professional help seeking (Kulka, Veroff, & Douvan, 1979), whereas age, sex, and education have been shown to be important predictors of professional help seeking (Greenley & Mechanic, 1976; Hibbard & Pope, 1983; Kulka et al., 1979;