Cultural Beliefs, Mental Health Literacy, and Help-Seeking Behaviours Among Young Sarawak Indigenous Adults
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33736/jcshd.5930.2023Keywords:
cultural belief, mental health literacy, help-seeking behaviour, young adults, indigenous communityAbstract
This study aimed to understand the prevailing cultural beliefs concerning mental health literacy and help-seeking behaviours among young adults within the indigenous community of Sarawak. Six participants from various indigenous communities from Sarawak, ranging from 18 to 35-year-olds, were interviewed in the qualitative study. Four main themes with fourteen (14) sub-themes were found in the interview data using thematic analysis. These comprised belief systems on mental health, mental health literacy, help-seeking behaviour, and barriers to help-seeking. The study was done among selected young adults in the Indigenous Community in Sarawak. The predominant finding of this study was the inclination of most participants to seek religious support when confronted with mental health challenges. To advance the investigation, future research should explore similar themes across different age groups and expand participant diversity, encompassing a range of socio-economic backgrounds, to provide a refined understanding of these dynamics on mental health among youths.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorder (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.
American Psychological Association. (2019). Mental health issues increased significantly in young adults over last decade. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2019/03/mental-health-adults
Bandura, A. (1999). A social cognitive theory of personality. In L. Pervin & O. John (Eds.),
Barret, B., Loa, P., Jerah, E., Nancarrow, D., Chant, D. & Mowry, B. (2005). Rate of treated schizophrenia and its clinical and cultural features in the population isolate of the Iban of Sarawak: a tri-diagnostic approach. Psychological Medicine, 35, 281 – 293. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291704002880
Braun V and Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 77–101. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Cambridge Dictionary. (2022). Animism. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ animism
Castor, R. & Eroza, E. (1998) Research notes on social order and subjectivity: individuals’ experience of susto and fallen fontanelle in a rural community in central Mexico. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 22, 203-230. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005365004836
Cherry, K. (2022). How social learning theory works. Developmental Psychology: Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/social-learning-theory-2795074
Chua, S. N. (2020). The economic cost of mental disorders in Malaysia. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(4), e23. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30091-2
Chuang, S. (2021). The applications of constructivist learning theory and social learning theory on adult continuous development. Performance Improvement, 6(3), 6–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.21963
Department of Statistics Malaysia. (2022). Current population estimates, Malaysia, 2022. Department of Statistics Malaysia. https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=co lumn/pdfPrev&id=dTZXanV6UUdyUEQ0SHNWOVhpSXNMUT09
Edman, J.L., & Koon, T.Y. (2000). Mental illness beliefs in Malaysia: Ethnic and intergenerational comparison. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 40(2), 101–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/002076400004600203
Furnham, A., & Swami, V. (2018). Mental health literacy: A review of what it is and why it matters. International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation, 7(4), 240. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/ipp0000094
Handbook of personality (pp. 154-196). New York: Guilford Publications
IWGIA (2022). The Indigenous World 2022: Malaysia. International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. https://www.iwgia.org/en/malaysia/4653-iw-2022-malaysia.html
Jurewicz, I. (2015). Mental health in young adults and adolescents – supporting general physicians to provide holistic care. Clinical Medicine Journal, (2), 151–15. https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmedicine.15-2-151
Landerman, C. (1991). Malay medicine, Malay person. Medical Anthropology, 13, 83-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.1991.9966042
Masron, T., Masami, F., & Ismail, N. (2013). Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia: Population, spatial distribution and socio-economic condition. Journal of Ritsumeikan, Social Sciences & Humanities, 6, 75–115
Minority Rights Group International. (2018). Indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities in Sarawak. World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/indigenous-peoples-and-ethnic-minorities-in-sarawak/
Munawar, K., Mukhtar, F., Choudhry, F. R., & Ng, A. L. O. (2022). Mental health literacy: A systematic review of knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders in Malaysia. Asia‐Pacific Psychiatry, 14(1), e12475. https://doi.org/10.1111/appy.12475
Noorwali, R., Almotairy, S., Akhder, R., Mahmoud, G., Sharif, L., Alasmee, N., ... & Hafez, D. (2022). Barriers and facilitators to mental health help-seeking among young adults in Saudi Arabia: A Qualitative Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(5), 2848. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19052848
Raaj, S., Navanathan, S., Tharmaselan, M., & Lally, J. (2021). Mental disorders in Malaysia: An increase in lifetime prevalence. BJPsych International, 18(4), 97-99. https://doi.org/10.1192/bji.2021.4
Shah, N.M., Rus, R. C.,Mustapha, R., Hussain, M. A. M., & Wahab, N.A. (2018). The orang asli profile in Peninsular Malaysia: Background & challenges. The International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(7), 1157–1164. http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v8-i7/4563
Tan, M. M., Su, T. T., Ting, R. S. K., Allotey, P., & Reidpath, D. (2021). Religion and mental health among older adults: ethnic differences in Malaysia. Aging & Mental Health, 25(11), 2116–2123. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2020.1799939
The World Bank. (2022). Urban population (% of the total population) - Malaysia. The World Bank. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS?locations=MY
Tumin, M., Rahman, M. M., & Jantan, Z. (2022). Community discrimination towards mental illness: a cross-sectional study in rural Sarawak, Malaysia. Journal of Health and Translational Medicine, 25(1), 61-67. https://doi.org/10.22452/jummec.vol25no1.10
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal
1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and reference publication in the Journal.
2) For open access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.
3) The author(s) is/are responsible to ensure his or her or their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. Corresponding author(s) has (have) obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained the permission from the copyright owners.
4) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare(s) that the researches in which they have conducted are in compliance with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving human or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
5) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that he or she has no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
