Abstract:
Individuals at the emerging adulthood stage (ages 18-24) are susceptible to mental health-related risks
as they experience distinct life events that bring change, tension, and strain that consequently affect
outcomes in adulthood. With the rise of mental health needs among young people living in the
Philippines, there is an urgent need to understand how Filipino emerging adults conceptualize and
participate in mental health help-seeking (MHHS). Using the critical approach of Moscovici’s Social
Representations Theory (SRT), I proposed this qualitative inquiry to explore Filipino emerging adults’
mental health help-seeking and discover the socio-cultural meanings that emerged within their shared
understanding. The existing literature studying Filipinos’ mental health and mental health helpseeking
have all threaded an attitude-based approach, which does not discuss social and cultural
aspects involved that can actually influence help-seeking. These studies have also been focused on
prevalence and risk factors associated to specific mental disorders and on a more specific group of
people such as Filipino immigrants. I therefore used the Social Representations theory as the
framework of this study because it can effectively capture the integration of the self and culture, and
can explore the collective views that emerge when Filipino emerging adults try to make sense of
mental health help-seeking. The data collection procedures that I utilized in this study was in a form
of a semi-structured, open-ended, and in-depth online interview due to the restrictions brought about
by the Covid-19 lockdown. Nonetheless, these interviews were conducted successfully, and I was able
to gather a pool of 6 individuals who voluntarily participated and fit the inclusion criteria. I used the
5-step qualitative thematic analysis procedure (Creswell, 2007) to analyze and treat the information
that the participants provided to develop the emerging themes and construct the wider socio-cultural
discourse on mental health help-seeking. The methodology and analysis anchored to this framework,
which deviates from the individualized and disorder-focused orientation of other help-seeking studies,
helped in addressing the gap in the literature and looked into the importance of society and culture in
mental health and wellbeing.
