Self-disclosure, Perceived Stigma and Social Support as Predictors of Counselling Help-seeking Intentions Among Undergraduate Students in Ebonyi State
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: University students in Nigeria carry a heavy psychological load, yet campus counselling units remain under-used. The study examined self-disclosure, perceived stigma and social support as predictors of counselling help-seeking attitudes and intentions among students of Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki. A cross-sectional survey with a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial structure was adopted. Six hundred students aged 18 to 28 years were drawn from five randomly selected departments across five faculties; 597 questionnaires were returned, three were lost in handling, and 499 (266 males, 233 females) were complete enough for analysis. Data were collected with the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, the Social Stigma for Receiving Psychological Help Scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, the Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help ScaleShort Form and the Intentions to Seek Counselling Inventory. Pearson correlation, descriptive statistics and a three-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were used to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses at the .05 level. Self-disclosure correlated positively with attitude toward counselling (r = .29, p < .001), and high disclosers held more favourable attitudes than low disclosers. Perceived stigma produced the strongest multivariate effect (Wilks' λ = .928, F(2, 490) = 19.02, p < .001, partial η² = .072), with high-stigma students reporting weaker attitudes and lower intentions. Social support produced a smaller but significant effect, while no interaction term reached significance. Both null hypotheses were rejected. Stigma therefore operates as the principal brake on counselling uptake, whereas disclosure readiness functions as a modifiable lever within reach of university counsellors
Institution: Abia State University
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7223221029