<p>Preschoolers with depression are more likely to receive treatment than those with anxiety or behavioral disorders. Parents’ perceptions of factors related to help-seeking, such as problem recognition, behavior severity, functional impairment, and parenting stress, may vary between disorders. The present study examined differences among these factors and help-seeking for early childhood depression, anxiety, and ADHD. Participants were 82 adult mothers of preschool-aged children who read four vignettes describing a preschooler with depression, anxiety, ADHD, or nonclinical behavior. Following each vignette, mothers answered questions about their perceptions of problem recognition, severity, impairment, stress, and help-seeking for each disorder. A series of one-way within-subjects ANOVAs indicated a significant difference between problem types. Planned contrasts and post hoc analyses further revealed that clinical problems received significantly higher ratings than the nonclinical control on all five factors. Additionally, mothers rated depression as significantly more severe than anxiety and ADHD. However, there were no significant differences between the clinical vignettes on the remaining factors. These results demonstrate that mothers of preschoolers perceive depression as more severe than other clinical problems, which may explain why help-seeking rates for depression are higher than for other problems.</p>