About the study
Rebecca had 200 undergraduates (135 females, average age = 18.4 years) complete online questionnaires that measured their procrastination, stress, mental health issues and mental health-seeking behaviors. Given that procrastination and stress are related, she explored how they may work together to predict mental health and health-seeking.

The results
The relations (as explored with a series of canonical correlations) between scores on these measures supported the main hypothesis, associating stress and procrastination with poorer mental health. The results also indicated that age and gender were related to mental health help-seeking; being older and being female were related to higher scores on the help-seeking measure. Interestingly, the third canonical correlation revealed that reduced procrastination and a reduced concern for presenting oneself in a socially-desirable fashion were associated with poorer mental health and increased mental health help-seeking behaviors.

Why these results are of interest
This focus on mental health-seeking behavior is important given the noted discrepancy between the prevalence of mental health problems and the rate of help-seeking for these problems. For example, data from a 2003 international consortium revealed that in the U.S., the prevalence of a diagnosed (i.e., DSM-IV) disorder was 29.1% whereas the prevalence of seeking treatment was only 10.9%.

Of course, procrastination has been shown previously to contribute to treatment delay. As Rebecca notes in her paper, procrastination has been shown to be a barrier to help-seeking for drug abuse and gambling. Procrastination has also been shown to be related to delay on everyday self-help such as the frequency of household safety behaviors (e.g., changing the batteries in the smoke alarm) as well as dental or medical check ups.

The role of decision-making and the effects of stress
In their discussion, the authors draw on the third author's extensive work on decision-making. When considering the strong relation between stress and poorer mental health, they write,

"It appears that cognitive functioning may have a role in stress management that is profitably distinguished from mental health generally. Inasmuch as stress may ‘compromise its own negotiation' . . . appropriate decision-making under stress may be affected by cognitive load as a stressor itself . . . Preservation of some degree of effective cognitive functioning may be implicated with treatment-seeking."

If we aren't thinking well, if our thinking and decision making is compromised, we won't be able to make important decisions about seeking help when it's necessary. What they advocate is future investigation of the role of effective cognitive functioning as a factor in mental health-help seeking.

Closing thoughts
Given the focus on seeking help for mental health problems, I particularly like the question that Rebecca and her coauthors pose at the closing of their manuscript. They write, "A crucial question arises: If someone is not well enough, organized enough, or demographically predisposed to initiating a course of treatment, how can this person be reached?"

While we await future research on this topic, I suggest that this is a situation for which our social network might help. Do you know someone who might be described as at risk for not seeking help? Is he or she stressed, overwhelmed, not taking decisions? It may be time to speak up. It may be time to help someone by actually walking her or him (more likely given this study) over to health services. We can't make choices for others, and we can't live their lives, but we can show empathy and support as concretely as possible.

Reference
Stead, R., Shanahan, M.J., & Neufeld, R.W.J. (in press). "I'll go to therapy, eventually: Procrastination, stress and mental health. Personality and Individual Differences.