Parental facilitation of adolescent mental health service utilization: A conceptual and empirical review.

Abstract

Adolescent mental health service utilization has received increasing attention recently, with epidemiological studies revealing rates of service use that fall far below rates of psychopathology. Our primary aim in this article is to review and integrate current conceptions of the function that parents can serve in obtaining mental health services for adolescents. The review highlights the importance of developing a process-oriented model of service seeking. The initial parental help-seeking steps of gaining awareness of adolescents' distress and identifying specific emotional or behavioral problems receive particular attention. We stress that only by focusing on the role of parents and attending to specific developmental influences can the phenomenon of adolescent mental health service utilization be truly understood.