Anxiety Specific Mental Health Stigma and Help-Seeking in Adolescent Males

Rates of help-seeking for mental health problems are low amongst refugee communities, despite the high prevalence of PTSD reported amongst these individuals. Research suggests that the key barriers to seeking help for psychological problems include structural barriers (e.g., unstable housing), cultural barriers (e.g., mental health stigma), and barriers specific to refugees and asylum seekers (e.g., visa status). This study examined the effect of structural, cultural and refugee specific barriers on the relationship between PTSD symptom severity and intentions to seek help from professional, social, and community sources. Data was collected from 103 male refugees and asylum seekers with an Arabic-, Farsi-, or Tamil-speaking background. Participants completed measures indexing demographics, trauma exposure, PTSD symptoms, mental health stigma, and help-seeking intentions. Path analyses indicated that PTSD severity was associated with lower help-seeking intentions indirectly via mental health stigma (self-stigma for seeking help and self-stigma for PTSD) and visa security. PTSD severity was also associated with greater help-seeking intentions from community members indirectly via structural barriers. These findings are important to consider when identifying key barriers to mental health help-seeking and developing interventions designed to increase help-seeking for psychological problems, within this group.

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The Effectiveness of a Depression Literacy Program on Stigma and Mental Help-Seeking Among Adolescents in Malaysia: A Control Group Study With 3-Month Follow-Up

INQUIRY The Journal of Health Care Organization Provision and Financing ◽

10.1177/0046958020902332 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 57 ◽

pp. 004695802090233

Author(s):

Norhayati Ibrahim ◽

A’isyah Mohd Safien ◽

Ching Sin Siau ◽

Suzana Shahar

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Intervention Group ◽

Literacy Program ◽

Mental Health Stigma ◽

Control Group ◽

Negative Beliefs ◽

Depression Literacy ◽

Short Video

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a depression literacy program on depression literacy, mental health stigma, and help-seeking attitude among adolescents with a monthly household income of RM3900 a month or less (B40) in Malaysia. The program included a lecture, mental awareness activities, and a short video on depression. Residents from a boarding school for lower income families were involved in this study (N = 101); 53 of them underwent the program and another 48 served as the control group. There were significant improvements for all variables in the intervention group (better depression literacy, reduced self-stigma, reduced negative beliefs on mental health, and increased help-seeking) at posttest. However, the results were sustained at 3-month follow-up only for the depression literacy, mental help-seeking attitude, and self-stigma of seeking help variables when compared with the control group. The findings highlight the need to improve the program to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of the outcomes.

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Mental health stigma and professional help-seeking attitudes a comparison between Cuba and Germany

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0246501 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. e0246501

Author(s):

Laura Nohr ◽

Alexis Lorenzo Ruiz ◽

Juan E. Sandoval Ferrer ◽

Ulrike Buhlmann

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Mental Disorders ◽

Cultural Context ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Mental Health Stigma ◽

Professional Help ◽

Help Seeking Attitudes ◽

German Sample ◽

Community Attitudes

Globally the burden due to mental disorders is continuously increasing. Still, professional help-seeking behavior is not fully understood. To conceive cultural determinants of help-seeking is crucial to reduce personal and social costs of (untreated) mental disorders. The current study investigates mental health stigma and help-seeking attitudes in a Cuban (n = 195) and a German (n = 165) sample. In a questionnaire survey we asked for attitudes towards mental illness and professional help-seeking in the general Cuban and German populations. The cultural context was associated with mental health stigma and professional help-seeking attitudes. Interestingly, Cuban participants reported stronger mental health stigma and more willingness to seek help. In multiple hierarchical regression analyses, community attitudes towards the mentally ill significantly predicted help-seeking attitudes, especially in the Cuban sample. Only in the German sample, more negative individual beliefs about mental illness predicted more self-stigma on help-seeking. Beyond that, cultural context moderated the association between mental health stigma and help-seeking attitudes with a stronger association between the measures in the German sample. However, gender did not predict help-seeking attitudes and self-stigma on help-seeking and no interactions between community attitudes, cultural context, and gender were found in the prediction of help-seeking attitudes. Similarities and differences between the samples are discussed in the light of the cultural contexts and peculiarities of the current samples. Concluding, implications of the current findings are reviewed.

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Prevalence of common mental health concerns and service utilization among international students studying in the U.S.

10.31234/osf.io/85dh4 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Xiang Zhou ◽

Anne Q. Zhou ◽

Xiaoning Sun

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

International Students ◽

Service Utilization ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Mental Health Stigma ◽

Domestic Students ◽

Student Sample ◽

Health Concerns ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Mental Health Concerns

An estimated one million international students are enrolled in U.S. universities. However, little was known about the landscape of their mental health and help-seeking behaviors. Drawing from a large national university student sample (N = 228,421, 8.49% non-U.S. citizen) from the Healthy Minds Study, data indicated the rates of major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, eating disorder, non-suicidal self-injury, and suicidal ideation were 27.4%, 20.0%, 26.4%, 17.2%, and 8.8% respectively among international students, with high inter-country variabilities. Contrary to our expectations, there is no strong and consistent evidence suggesting international students were at higher risk for common mental health concerns compared to domestic students. However, among students who were screened positive for these mental health disorders (n = 96,567), there was a significant difference between service utilization rates for international students and domestic students (32.0% vs. 49.8%), even after controlling for gender, age, socioeconomic status, perceived need for help, mental health stigma, and using informal support. Our results highlight the urgency for addressing mental health concerns and equitable mental health care among international students.

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Predictors of internalized mental health stigma in a help-seeking sample of youth: The roles of psychosis-spectrum symptoms and family functioning.

Journal of Abnormal Psychology ◽

10.1037/abn0000679 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 130 (6) ◽

pp. 587-593

Author(s):

Joseph S. DeLuca ◽

LeeAnn Akouri-Shan ◽

Samantha Y. Jay ◽

Samantha L. Redman ◽

Emily Petti ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Family Functioning ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Mental Health Stigma

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Examining a Mental Health Literacy Intervention Among Economically Disadvantaged Youth

Journal of Mental Health Counseling ◽

10.17744/mehc.42.4.04 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 42 (4) ◽

pp. 339-355

Author(s):

Jayna Mumbauer-Pisano ◽

Sejal Mehta Barden

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Health Literacy ◽

Mental Health Treatment ◽

Economically Disadvantaged ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Mental Health Literacy ◽

Health Knowledge ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Literacy Intervention ◽

Mental Health Stigma

Although mental health problems in adolescence are increasingly common, 60% of diagnosed youth do not receive appropriate mental health treatment. This service gap is even wider among adolescents from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, who face increased mental health stigma and barriers to treatment. Mental health literacy is a pivotal step in addressing the discrepancy between rates of mental health diagnoses and of individuals treated. This study evaluates the influence of a 6-week mental health literacy intervention on economically disadvantaged adolescents’ mental health literacy, implemented by counselors-in-training. From pretest to posttest, adolescents’ mental health knowledge and attitudes toward help-seeking significantly increased, while mental health stigma significantly decreased. These changes were sustained at 1-month follow-up. The results highlight the importance of brief mental health literacy interventions to encourage healthy coping and help-seeking and to dispel stigmatizing beliefs.

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