When Performance Takes Priority: Beliefs That Shape Engineering Students’ Mental Health Help-Seeking

Engineering education is at a critical juncture where supporting student mental health is essential for fostering persistence, equity, and the development of a resilient and innovative workforce. Yet, undergraduate engineering students experiencing mental health concerns are often unlikely to seek professional help. To identify factors that account for this gap in treatment, this project administered the Undergraduate Engineering Mental Health Help Seeking Instrument to 1903 engineering undergraduates across five institutions. Correlations and regression were used to examine the links between help-seeking intention and (a) help-seeking mechanisms (e.g., attitude, perceived norm, self-efficacy) and (b) beliefs about seeking help. Students’ personal evaluation of seeking help as a good versus bad thing (attitude) and their perceptions of other’s expectations and behaviors toward seeking help (perceived norm) demonstrated the strongest links with intention to seek help. Agreement with certain beliefs (e.g., seeking help would… make me feel better, improve my academic performance) and disagreement with others (e.g., seeking help would be a… waste of time, sign of weakness) was associated with intention. These results provide targets for future interventions designed to improve help seeking in the engineering student population. By illuminating the cultural and psychological factors that shape engineering students’ help-seeking decisions, this study contributes evidence to guide systemic changes in engineering education that promote student well-being and strengthen the future of the profession.