Social Class, Classism, Stigma, and College Students’ Attitudes Toward Counseling

• Published in: The Counseling psychologist Vol. 46; no. 6; pp. 761 - 785
• Main Authors: Choi, Na-Yeun, Miller, Matthew J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.08.2018; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Classism; College students; Counseling; Dominance; Help seeking behavior; Indirect effects; Objectives; Social attitudes; Social classes; Stigma; Structural equation modeling; Student attitudes; help-seeking attitudes; stigma; subjective social class; classism; objective social class
• ISSN: 0011-0000; 1552-3861
• DOI: 10.1177/0011000018796789

This study tested two competing theoretically and empirically derived models of college students’ attitudes toward seeking counseling. It extends the literature in this area by assessing the influence of objective and subjective social class, classism, and stigma on attitudes. We used structural equation modeling to analyze self-reported archival data from 2,230 incoming college students at a large, public research university in the Eastern United States. The results demonstrated the superiority of the direct and indirect effects of social class over the competing indirect effects model of social class. The results further indicated that objective social class related to attitudes toward seeking professional help indirectly through subjective social class, classism, and stigma. Finally, the results also showed that objective social class, subjective social class, and classism operated differently in the model. We discuss study limitations, future directions for research, and recommendations for practice.