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This study examines the effects of economic need and self-esteem on the attitudes toward and use of professional (instrumental and psychotherapeutic) services by Arab women living in the mixed Arab-Jewish town of Jaffa, Israel. Findings show that self-esteem was associated with the women's help-seeking behavior but not their attitudes only when economic need was not taken into account. When economic need was included in the analyses, the effect of self-esteem disappeared altogether. These findings point to the importance of economic need in actual help seeking and cast doubt on the adequacy of the "threat to self-esteem" model to explain underutilization of professional services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]