Adolescents’ Views of Preferred Helper Characteristics and Barriers to Seeking Help From School-Based Adults

Focus groups of 9th graders were conducted to obtain their views of preferred characteristics of school-based adults to whom they would turn for help with a personal concern & to determine their perception of barriers to seeking help from adults in their schools. Students identified several positive characteristics such as “nonjudgmental”, “makes self available” & “relates to teens”. Barriers to seeking help included “dual roles”, “psychologically inaccessible”, & “too busy”. Results have implications for increasing the accessibility of school-based adults as a central protective factor for adolescents. (52 refs.)