Perceptions of Mental Health Stigma and Discrimination in a Mexican American Sample

Abstract

The stigma of mental health problems between Mexican Americans and White non-Hispanic European Americans was investigated and measured by attitudes toward seeking help and the amount of social distance desired from individuals with mental health problems. The stigma of mental health has been identified as a barrier to accessing mental health services among Mexican Americans and men in general. Men from both groups access mental health services at a significantly lower rate than women from both groups. This study contributed to research and practice by examining the possible differences in the level of stigma toward mental health problems between Mexican Americans and White non-Hispanic European Americans. This study also explored the relationship between Mexican Americans' acculturation level as well as selected demographic variables and the stigma of mental health problems. There were no significant ethnic or gender differences in the level of stigma toward mental health between the two groups. However, there was a significant gender difference within the White non-Hispanic European American group. Results also indicated that there was no significant relationship between Mexican Americans' acculturation level and the amount of stigma toward mental health. However, there was a significant positive correlation between Mexican Americans' age and the amount of social distance desired from individuals with mental health problems. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge with my deepest gratitude, appreciation and love my wife, Traci Ann, for her support, encouragement and love throughout this difficult and challenging endeavor. I also wish to express my deepest gratitude, respect and appreciation to my dissertation advisor, Jesse N. Valdez, Ph.D., for his unwavering support, encouragement and mentorship throughout my graduate career. I am thankful for my dissertation committee, Cyndy McRae, Ph.D. and Bobbi Vollmer, Ph.D., for their guidance and patience throughout this process. Thank you to my research assistants for managing the dissemination and collection of data. Thank you to all of my participants who took time out of their own busy lives to help me in the progression of mine by completing my survey. Finally, I want to acknowledge and thank all the professors and administrative staff in the Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver for providing me with excellent training and an incredible learning experience. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Measuring mental illness stigma among Hispanics: A systematic review.

“…Results of the factor analysis in the Interian et al (2010) study indicated support for Social Distance Scale, SCMHC, and LSAS as single-factor measures. The factor analysis conducted by Wright (2009) demonstrated different factor solutions for the SSOSH for the White, non-Hispanic European American sample compared to the Mexican American sample, indicating that Hispanic participants may respond differently to these items compared to non-Hispanic, White participants. Both studies used English and Spanish versions of the scales but neither differentiated by language in their analyses.…”

“…Of the eight studies that administered scales in Spanish, six reported on the translation process of the scales. Three studies used a backtranslation process (Dueweke & Bridges, 2017; Keeler & Siegel, 2016; Wright, 2009) and two studies (Hernandez & Organista, 2013; Unger, Cabassa, Molina, Contreras, & Baron, 2013) used translations from the Interian et al (2010) study that were developed by a bilingual research assistant and checked by two researchers. Sample sizes of the studies ranged from 80 to 267 Hispanic adults, with a majority (57%) of the 2507 total participants being college/adult school students.…”

“…Factor analysis was only conducted by two studies for five of the measures: the PDD, 6-item version of the Social Distance Scale, SCMHC, and the LSAS by Interian et al (2010) and for the SSOSH by Wright (2009). Results of the factor analysis in the Interian et al (2010) study indicated support for Social Distance Scale, SCMHC, and LSAS as single-factor measures.…”

“…Reliability for the measures in this review varied considerably, with many coefficient alphas falling below the recommended minimum of .70 (Nunnally, 1978). The lack of factor analysis methods used on the scales is of particular concern given that Wright (2009) demonstrated different factor structures of the SSOSH for Hispanic and non-Hispanic, White samples and Interian et al (2010) reported issues with the factor structure for the PDD, a previously developed measure. While many of the studies reported offering scales in Spanish, none of them performed comparisons between Spanish and English versions, and few reported on translation procedures used.…”

Psychometric Properties of Three Measures of Stigma Among Hispanics with Depression

“…While the use of existing measures may be preferable to the development of new measures [18], steps should be taken to assure that measures are linguistic and culturally relevant for use with new populations [24]. Previous research on stigma measurement among Hispanics has emphasized the need for this type of validation, with one study reporting different factor structures for a measure tested in both a Hispanic and non-Hispanic, White sample [25] and another study concluding a lack of support for a previously validated measure when it was tested with a primarily Spanish-speaking sample [8].…”