Help-seeking personal agency is a frequently studied help-seeking perception construct and is incorporated into certain medical/health/social scientific theories used to studying health services treatment access. When studying the behavior of seeking help from a mental health professional, “personal agency” is shorthand for “perceived agency related to seeking help from a mental health professional.”

A variety of ad hoc measures of help-seeking perceived norm have been used by scholars over time. See Dr. Hammer’s Publications page for such articles (e.g., Spiker, Berney, Hammer, & Jensen, 2020; Hammer, Parent, & Spiker, 2018). These measures vary in the degree to which they assess autonomy versus capacity elements of personal agency.

These measures are generally adapted from Ajzen’s (2006; revised 2019) perceived behavioral control measure template for scholars wanting to construct direct measures for a Theory of Planned Behavior Questionnaire. None of these measures have had reliability/validity evidence for them published in a peer-reviewed academic journal based on an independent psychometric evaluation study. However, as of 2024, Hammer and colleagues have two such psychometric evaluation papers currently under review. If and when these papers are published, this webpage will be revised accordingly to formally provide and recommend the published version.

For now, here is the personal agency measure that we informally recommend, which has been adapted from Ajzen’s (2006; revised 2019) perceived behavioral control measure template and refined over time by our research team.

Mental Help Seeking Personal Agency Scale
(Note: the first three items of this measure assess the autonomy element of personal agency and the last three items assess the capacity element of personal agency)

  1. My seeking help from a mental health professional in the next 3 months would be up to me. [This item is rated on a Likert-type scale from 1 (Completely false) to 6 (Completely true)]
  2. My seeking help from a mental health professional in the next 3 months would ___. [This item is rated on a Likert-type scale from 1 (Not be up to me) to 6 (Be up to me)]
  3. My seeking help from a mental health professional in the next 3 months would ___. [This item is rated on a Likert-type scale from 1 (Not be under my control) to 6 (Be under my control)]
  4. I am confident that I could seek help from a mental health professional in the next 3 months. [This item is rated on a Likert-type scale from 1 (Completely false) to 6 (Completely true)]
  5. I would have the ability to seek help from a mental health professional in the next 3 months. [This item is rated on a Likert-type scale from 1 (Completely false) to 6 (Completely true)]
  6. I would be capable of seeking help from a mental health professional in the next 3 months. [This item is rated on a Likert-type scale from 1 (Completely false) to 6 (Completely true)]

To cite this measure using APA-style:

Hammer, J. H. (n.d.). Mental Help Seeking Personal Agency Scale. Retrieved [Month] [Date], [Year], from https://helpseekingresearch.com/measures/personal-agency/

This Mental Help Seeking Personal Agency Scale assesses personal agency in a manner consistent with the definition of personal agency specified by the Integrated Behavioral Model of Mental Health Help Seeking (IBM-HS).

Because the earlier reasoned action tradition theories (i.e., Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Planned Behavior) use the term “perceived behavioral control” and do not provide strict guidance on the degree to which perceived behavioral control items must assess autonomy (sometimes called “control”) versus capacity (sometimes called “self-efficacy”) norm elements, this Mental Help Seeking Personal Agency Measure is also appropriate for measuring “perceived behavioral control”. However, we recommend that help seeking researchers use the IBM-HS and operationalize this measured construct as “personal agency”.

The two elements (i.e., autonomy and capacity) of personal agency may be best operationalized as either (a) two separate latent factors or (b) two inseparable facets of the same latent factor, depending on the measure, population, and sample in question. Thus, users are encouraged to use factor analysis to verify the dimensionality (and reliability) of this six-item set in their sample before committing to a given modeling and scoring strategy. In other words, it may be best to create one mean score that averages the scores across all six items to measure overall personal agency, or it may be best to create two mean scores, one that averages the scores across the first three items to measure personal agency: autonomy and one that averages the scores across the last three items to measure personal agency: capacity.