Designing mental health promotion campaigns: segmenting U.S. Veteran audiences to address public stigma

• Published in: Journal of mental health (Abingdon, England) Vol. ahead-of-print; no. ahead-of-print; pp. 1 - 7
• Main Authors: Karras, Elizabeth, Stokes, Cara M., Warfield, Sara C., Bossarte, Robert M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Routledge 01.06.2024; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Ambivalence; Attitudes; Campaigns; Cluster analysis; Evidence-based practice; Health services utilization; Mental disorders; Mental health; Mental health promotion; military; Polls & surveys; Public opinion; public stigma; Segmentation; Stigma; Telephone service; Veterans; United States > US; public stigma; Campaigns; military; mental health
• ISSN: 0963-8237; 1360-0567; 1360-0567
• DOI: 10.1080/09638237.2022.2069712

Public stigma is a significant deterrent to mental health service use for U.S. veterans. Media campaigns are often used to dispel stigmatizing beliefs and actions. Segmentation is an evidence-based practice for their effective use; however, little data has been published on veteran segments to target with anti-stigma messages. This article aims to identify and describe initial typologies of stigmatizing attitudes within a group of U.S. military veterans. Telephone-based cross-sectional surveys were conducted with a national random sample of veterans from 2014 to 2016 (N = 2142). Stigma outcomes were measured using a brief, validated instrument used in population-based surveys of public perceptions toward people with mental illness. Cluster analysis was conducted to identify specific groupings along multiple dimensions. A final four-cluster solution was identified among veterans with distinct patterns of attitudes toward mental illness and include: 1) the undecided, 2) the influencer, 3) the ambivalent, and 4) the potential ally. Several strategies were also identified for designing anti-stigma messaging toward these segments. This research demonstrates veterans can be segmented by attitudes to target with anti-stigma campaign messages.