Stigma, attitudes, and intentions to seek mental health services in college student-athletes

• Published in: Journal of American college health Vol. 70; no. 5; pp. 1476 - 1485
• Main Authors: Hilliard, Robert C., Watson, Jack C., Zizzi, Sam J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Taylor & Francis 2022; Taylor & Francis Inc
• Subjects: Athletes; Attitudes; College Athletics; College Students; Counseling; Health behavior; Help Seeking; Help seeking behavior; Medical personnel; Mental Health; Mental health services; Negative Attitudes; Public opinion; quantitative; Regression analysis; Self esteem; Social Bias; sport psychology; Sports psychology; Stigma; Structural equation modeling; Student Attitudes; well-being; help-seeking behavior; well-being; quantitative; sport psychology; Counseling
• ISSN: 0744-8481; 1940-3208
• DOI: 10.1080/07448481.2020.1806851

Objective: To investigate predictors of mental health help-seeking as well as identify topics for which college student-athletes are most likely to seek help. Participants: Student-athletes (N = 328) from three Division II and III universities. Method: Participants completed a survey packet on stigma, attitudes, and intentions toward seeking mental health services as well as willingness to seek help for specific topics. Results: Structural equation modeling indicated public stigma was significantly related to self-stigma, self-stigma was related to attitudes, and attitudes were related to intentions. Using logistic regression analysis, self-stigma and attitudes were associated with an increased likelihood of having sought mental health services in the past. Comment: These results can be used to help sport psychologists and other mental health staff develop programing that might increase service use among student-athletes. Using a multifaceted approach that decreases stigma and improves attitudes could have the most meaningful effect on encouraging service use.