Purpose: Mental health promotion has become a priority in public health policy-making. Social support has been identified as a key protective factor for mental health promotion. Due to the crucial role of social support in promoting mental health, this study aimed to investigate how social support affected different help-seeking behaviors in mental health promotion. Specifically, guided by health belief model, this study examined the effects of social support on perceived susceptibility and severity of mental health issues, and on perceived benefits and barriers of seeking help for mental health promotion. Help seeking behaviors were examined in terms of self-help (e.g., reading books and searching the internet for mental health information), informal help (e.g., seeking help from family and friends), and formal help (e.g., seeking help from medicals and professionals).

Methodology: This study used a nationally representative online survey in China to get data. A series of independent sample t-test was performed to investigate the 

differences between high and low social support groups in terms of their perceived susceptibility and severity of having mental health issues, perceived benefits, and perceived mental and practical barriers of seeking help, and behavior intention to seek help for mental health promotion.

Results: Individuals with high social support reported more perceived susceptibility but less perceived seriousness than those with low social support. Compared to high social support group, people with low social support had higher rates of perceived benefit when they seek self-help, formal help and informal help in mental health promotion. Moreover, individuals with higher social support reported less mental and practical barriers when they seek self-help, formal help and informal help. Finally, high social support group reported greater behavioral intention of seeking self-help, formal help and informal help, as compared to low social support group.

Conclusions: People with poor social support experience less perceived susceptibility but more mental and practice seeking-help barriers in mental health promotion than those with strong social support. Improving social support among individuals may serve as a protective buffer to mental health promotion. Findings from this study will be beneficial for authorities and practitioners to improve mental health for different social groups.