Differences in Mental Health Literacy, Trust and Depression Valuation in Young Russians and Young Australians

Depression is the third leading cause of disease for adolescents and young people aged between 15-29 years (World Health Organisation, 2018). Many people do not seek help when experiencing depression, notwithstanding the fact that effective treatments are available (Boenisch et al., 2012). This may be due to their mental health literacy: an individual’s "knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management or prevention." (Jorm et al., 1997, p. 184). In our study our aim was to investigate and compare the beliefs and attitudes towards depression of young Russians and young Australians, and to determine whether the valuation they have of depressive symptoms and the trust they have towards others influences their help-seeking behaviours. Participants were 259 young people in Russia and 229 young people in Australia. They were presented with a vignette of a young person with symptoms of depression. They were asked to diagnose the person in the vignette, and were asked how helpful others would be in solving this problem and their attitudes and beliefs about the cause of the problem. It was found that young Australians were more likely to correctly recognise depression in the vignette, were more likely to endorse help seeking from professional others such as doctors and psychologists, and were less likely to show stigma. Trust of health professionals such as psychologists was significantly lower in the Russian sample, and this partially explained their help-seeking from these sources. There was no significant difference in the valuation of depression between the samples. Implications are discussed.