Help seeking for mental health problems in an adolescent population: the effect of gender.

Background: While the onset of many mental health problems occurs in adolescence, these problems are severely undertreated in this age group. To inform early intervention for adolescents, we investigated the effect of gender and education type on perception of barriers to help seeking, mental health literacy, and the awareness and use of mental health services. Method: A web-based survey using vignettes, open-ended and multiple choice items was administered to upper secondary school students in two counties in Norway. Results: The survey was completed by 1249 students (88% response rate) with an average age of 17.6 years and 56% were female. Compared to males, the females were better in identifying psychological problems of anxiety and trauma, awareness of mental health services (p < 0.001) and perceived more barriers for seeking help (cost and waiting time; p < 0.001). For use of all mental health services, the effect of education type was greater than the effect of gender. Conclusion: For adolescents, gender appears to play a significant, but not exclusive, role in the inclination to seek professional help for mental health problems. We hypothesise that the observed gender difference in use of services is related to the gender difference in awareness of referral pathway services and the influence of parents in help-seeking process.

Factors affecting suitability of Quercus rubra as hosts for Enaphalodes rufulus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae).

Epidemic populations of Enaphalodes rufulus (Haldeman), red oak borer, a native longhorned wood boring beetle, were implicated as a major contributor to a recent widespread oak mortality event in the Ozark National Forest of Arkansas. We assessed potential factors affecting suitability of a primary host Quercus rubra L., northern red oak, which experienced dieback and mortality throughout two successive borer cohorts. We sampled trees with various E. rufulus infestation levels during 2001-2003 when populations were at outbreak levels and 2003-2005 when borer numbers were declining. We measured phloem thickness and calculated a vigor index; the ratio of the past 5-yr basal area increment to sapwood area. We also counted established first year larval feeding galleries and outer-bark adult emergence holes and measured surface area of feeding galleries on a subset of Q. rubra to assess the importance of host susceptibility versus suitability. Phloem thickness did not exhibit any patterns among hosts of varying infestation levels and was therefore not likely an important factor limiting larval success. Less vigorous Q. rubra appeared to be the most suitable hosts, although it is unclear whether reduced vigor was initially caused by stress of E. rufulus infestation or environmental factors. Host suitability seems to be more important than host susceptibility, as numbers of initiated galleries were not consistently different among host infestation classes and between both cohorts, whereas numbers of emerging adults did differ predictably among host infestation classes.