Comparing perceived public stigma and personal stigma of mental health treatment seeking in a young adult sample

Abstract

Perceived public stigma regarding seeking mental health treatment seeking can be a barrier to accessing services for young adults. While factors associating with personal stigma regarding how one would view and treat others have been identified, the discrepancies between perceived and personal stigma has received less research attention. We designed the current study to expand on previous research and examine the discrepancies between perceived public stigma and personal stigma among a sample of 386 primarily White and Asian college students. Participants completed surveys of mental health symptoms, treatment experience and attitudes, perceived public, and personal stigma. Overall, participants generally reported greater perceived public stigma than personal stigma; an effect that was particularly evident for women and those with mental health symptoms. The majority of participants disagreed with items assessing personal stigma. Negative attitudes toward treatment and anxiety symptoms associated with perceived public stigma, while male gender, Asian ethnicity, and negative attitudes toward treatment associated with personal stigma. Findings have implications for interventions and marketing programs to help change perceptions about mental health stigma to encourage utilization of services for those young people who could benefit from care.

Annual review of Asian American Psychology, 2013.

“…Lee, Ditchman, Fong, Piper, & Feigon, 2014; J.-y. Lee, 2014;Pedersen & Paves, 2014;Y. J. Wong, Wang, & Maffini, 2014;Zane & Ku, 2014), and the remaining one study focused on emerging to middle-aged adults (L. H.…”

Healthcare professionals’ perspectives on mental health service provision: a pilot focus group study in six European countries

“…Disparities in MHC provision in rural vs urban areas are attributed to unavailable services, capacity problems in care provision, and social stigma [33]. Another determinant of the mhcGAP is the social stigma which was discussed by the participants in connection to the differences in funding for MH as opposed to other health services [34,35]. These inequities in accessibility are discussed in the literature and HPs are mindful of them [36].…”

Help-Seeking Stigma and Mental Health Treatment Seeking Among Young Adult Veterans

“…A major finding of this study was a discrepancy between participants’ perceptions about possible negative judgments from others and their own beliefs about individuals seeking help. This discrepancy between what someone thinks others would think about their engagement in mental health treatment (e.g., “Others would view me as weak”) and what they themselves actually think about others (“I would not view someone else as weak”) has been demonstrated in college student samples as well (Eisenberg, Downs, Golberstein, & Zivin, 2009; Pedersen & Paves, 2014). These results suggest a possible avenue for developing approaches to correct misperceptions of perceived stigma (e.g., “You believe that other veterans would view you as weak if you went in for treatment, yet 88% of veterans report they would not view a fellow veteran that way”).…”