Is the attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help scale applicable to ethnic Chinese students? Psychometric properties and cultural considerations

The Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale has been applied widely. However, there is no complete report on the reliability and validity of its Chinese version (ATSPPHS-C). A total of 353 Taiwanese undergraduates completed the ATSPPHS-C, Help-Seeking Willingness Scale, Symptom Check List-90R, and Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. The ATSPPHS-C had satisfactory psychometric properties, and the different functions of each subscale could be applied differently to assess the help-seeking characteristics of these ethnic Chinese (i.e., Taiwanese) individuals. To lessen stigmas hindering Taiwanese people from comfortably expressing their problems, mental health professionals can explore subjective concerns from the perspective of somatic symptoms and then move on to the underlying psychological distress.