Spirituality, Connectedness, and Beliefs About Psychological Services Among Filipino Immigrants in Iceland

Abstract

The authors examined psychological help-seeking attitudes and intentions of 183 Filipino immigrants in Iceland who had no previous counseling experience. Using path analysis, the authors examined how Filipino immigrants’ connectedness to the Filipino and Icelandic communities mediated the relationship among length of stay in Iceland, Icelandic and English fluency, spirituality, and psychological help-seeking attitudes and intentions. The authors also assessed the relationship between perceived system barriers and psychological help seeking. Filipino immigrants’ sense of connectedness to Icelandic society mediated the relationship among length of stay, Icelandic fluency, spirituality, and expertness beliefs and help-seeking intentions. Connectedness to the Filipino community in Iceland mediated the relationship between English fluency and stigma tolerance. Greater perception of system barriers was related to lower tolerance for the stigma attached to seeking psychological help. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.