eMental Health Literacy and the Relationship to Barriers to Mental Health Care

Abstract

According to the American Psychological Association (2017), one in four individuals who are 65 years and older experience a mental health problem; however, many older adults do not receive the services they need and deserve (Karlin, 2008). The current study utilizes a new concept similar to eHealth Literacy called eMental Health Literacy, defined as the degree to which individuals obtain, process, and understand basic mental health information and services needed to aid their recognition, management, or prevention of mental health issues. The relationship of eMental Health Literacy to perceived barriers to receiving mental health services was examined in a sample of middle-aged and older adults. We hypothesized that higher eMental Health Literacy would predict fewer reported barriers to mental health services. A sample of 243 participants (M=63.33, range=55-80 years) were recruited online through Amazon Mechanical Turk to complete measures assessing eMental Health Literacy (eMHEALS) and mental health barriers (BMHSSS-R). After adding two correlated errors, a structural equation model specifying eMHEALS as a predictor of extrinsic and intrinsic barriers to mental health services achieved good fit (χ2(60)=170.014, p<.001, SRMR=.068, CFI=.944, GFI=.901, TLI=.927, RMSEA=.087). All indicators were significantly related to their latent construct (p<.001). The results indicate higher eMental Health Literacy significantly predicted fewer reported intrinsic and fewer extrinsic barriers to mental health services. These relationships were statistically significant even when examined across differing socioeconomic status and age. These findings indicate eMental Health Literacy may have significant impact on the way individuals in later life navigate through the mental healthcare system.

College Students’ eMental Health Literacy and Risk of Diagnosis with Mental Health Disorders

“…eMHL is conceptually aligned with mental health literacy (MHL). eMHL is defined as “the degree to which individuals obtain, process, and understand online mental health information and services needed to aid their recognition, management, or prevention of mental health issues” [ 19 ] (p. 305). College students as a population need mental health information literacy skills at a critical stage in their psychosocial development to make mental health decisions that have lifelong impact [ 20 ].…”

“…Although eMHL is a significant influencing factor in college students’ mental health [ 19 , 25 ], studies on the association of eMHL with knowledge of mental health disorders and concurrent risk for diagnoses among college students is remarkably limited. Thus, the current study hypothesized that there are differences in knowledge of mental health disorders and risk of a mental health disorder diagnosis between college students with low and high eMHL.…”

The Associations between eMental Health Literacy, Barriers to Mental Health Services, and Psychological Distress in Older Adults

“…A pilot study with a separate sample of 243 adults 55-80 years old recruited from Amazon MTurk found strong Cronbach's alphas (0.86-0.90). Preliminary confirmatory factor analysis and factorial invariance analyses supported use of the three-factor solution with the eMHEALS (Root & Caskie, 2020).…”

Associations between eHealth literacy, mental health-seeking attitude, and mental wellbeing among young electronic media users in China during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…A US study indicated that parents with low eHL were more likely to have a child with a high risk for developing a mental health disorder (20). Another study found that there is a significant relationship between a higher level of eHL and fewer reported barriers to mental health services (21). Nevertheless, the high-quality research about eHL's impact on attitude toward mental health help-seeking and wellbeing is insufficient in China (22), where there are nearly 900 million active Internet users.…”