Relationship between extraversion and mental health literacy in Chinese adolescents: a chain mediation model.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Approximately one-quarter of the global population experiences mental disorders, with onset frequently occurring during adolescence. Low mental health literacy (MHL) is a crucial barrier to help-seeking. Although extraversion, social support, and psychological help-seeking all facilitate access to mental health information, their combined and sequential roles in influencing MHL remain underexplored. Using the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behavior (COM-B) model, this study examined the serial mediating roles of social support and psychological help-seeking in the relationship between extraversion and MHL in Chinese adolescents.

METHODS

A cross-sectional online survey was conducted involving 482 adolescents (ages 16-19; 56.43% girls) from Hunan Province, China. The participants completed the Extraversion Personality Questionnaire, Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), General Help-Seeking Questionnaire (GHSQ), and Mental Health Literacy Questionnaire (MHLQ). Data were analyzed using correlation and chain mediation analyses (bootstrapping with 5,000 samples), while controlling for gender and birthplace.

RESULTS

(1) Extraversion, social support, psychological help-seeking, and MHL were all positively correlated with each other (p < 0.001). (2) Path analysis revealed that social support (β = 0.072, 95% CI [0.033, 0.125]) and psychological help-seeking (β = 0.037, 95% CI [0.013, 0.072]) independently mediated the relationship between extraversion and MHL. (3) Additionally, these factors also serially mediated this relationship (β = 0.046, 95% CI [0.026, 0.073]). However, the direct effect of extraversion on MHL was not significant (β = 0.021, 95% CI [-0.071, 0.113]), indicating full mediation.

CONCLUSION

Social support and psychological help-seeking sequentially and fully mediate the relationship between extraversion and MHL in adolescents. Enhancing social support systems and promoting proactive help-seeking may effectively improve MHL, even among individuals with low extraversion.