Mental Health Help-Seeking Among Young Internal Migrants in China: Shame as a Double-Edged Sword

Young migrants in mainland China are vulnerable to mental health issues and are reluctant to seek help from professional sources. Shame is considered an important culture-specific emotion affecting professional help-seeking. The current study aimed to investigate the moderating role of shame in the association between psychological stress and help-seeking in young internal migrants in China. 415 internal migrants (mean age = 29.20; SD = 4.81) were recruited to participate in the survey study with oversampling of those who sought help before. Multiple linear regression and Zero-inflated Poisson regression models were used to examine the moderating effects of shame on the stress-intention and stress-behavior relations, respectively. Among the 65.0% of participants with high psychological stress, 62.6% of them never sought professional help for their mental health issues. The results demonstrate that shame significantly reduced the positive association between psychological stress and professional help-seeking behavior. Conversely, shame also played a protective role, mitigating the negative association between psychological stress and professional help-seeking intention. The findings underline the importance of addressing shame-related issue prior to therapy and developing promotion strategies to improve young migrants’ mental health. © The Author(s) 2025