Abstract Adolescence is a critical life stage for mental health. Mental and behavioral problems are increasingly prevalent among adolescents. Unfortunately, large numbers of studies indicated that young people were reluctant to seek professional mental health care. This low rate of adolescents seeking professional mental health care has a negative effect on adolescents. Professional help-seeking attitude has a strong influence on mental health utilization. Parents play an important role in adolescences’ professional help-seeking. Thus, previous studies have offered a parent-mediated model advocating direct parental intervention. Parents, however, may also have an indirect effect on adolescences’ professional help-seeking, for example, helping them form positive help-seeking attitudes. Previous studies indicated that there were differences between paternal and maternal parenting styles, which had different effects on adolescents. Considering the different effects of both father and mother on adolescents, the current study investigated the relationship between adolescents’ mental and behavioral problems, paternal knowledge, maternal knowledge, and professional help-seeking attitudes. A total of 831 students in the 7th grade, 8th grade and 10th grades from four schools in Beijing were asked to report their mental and behavioral problems by completing a Youth Self Report （YSR） questionnaire problem scale, maternal knowledge by completing a Maternal Knowledge Scale （MKNO）, paternal knowledge by completing a Paternal Knowledge Scale （PKNO）, as well as completing the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help （ATSPPH）. The results were as follows: Correlation analysis and SEM showed that adolescents’ mental and behavioral problems negatively predicted their professional help-seeking attitude. Paternal knowledge played a partial mediation effect in the relationship between adolescents’ mental and behavioral problems and professional help-seeking attitude, accounting for 26.03% of the mediation effect, while maternal knowledge did not play a mediation effect. In sum, all factors accounted for 21.40% of adolescents’ professional help-seeking attitude. In conclusion, the study shows the mediation effect of paternal knowledge between adolescents’ mental and behavioral problems and professional help-seeking attitudes while maternal knowledge doesn’t have the mediation effect. These results highlight the important role fathers play in adolescents’ professional help-seeking attitudes. When encouraging adolescents with mental and behavioral problems to seek professional mental help, parents, and especially fathers, should be more involved in their children’s lives.