Exploring the Relationship between Barriers to Care with Intention to Seek Mental Health Services in College Students

Abstract

Mental health illnesses are highly prevalent and have high social and financial costs. Many college students endorse mental health problems as a significant barrier to academic success and to completing college. However, there is a large service gap between those in need of treatment and those who actually receive treatment. This gap may be due to personal barriers to care, such as mental health stigma and low MH literacy, that can prevent people from seeking mental health services even where there is a significant need for them. However, most research thus far has focused on exploring the effects of singular barriers on treatment seeking behaviors. The present dissertation seeks to fill this gap in the literature by exploring the relationship between multiple barriers— low mental health literacy, personal stigma, perceived stigma, perceived logistical barriers—with intention to seek treatment in college students. Three different analytical methods were used to analyze cross-sectional data collected by the Health Minds Study from 2007-2017, including the use of the novel technique meta-analytic structural equation modeling. Results suggested that, overall, there were significant inter- correlations between mental health literacy, perceived stigma, personal stigma, and logistic barriers. Greater likelihood of endorsing intent to seek professional help was associated with reporting higher mental health literacy levels, higher perceived stigma, lower personal stigma, and more logistic barriers. The strength and consistency of the relationships between intent and personal stigma suggest that personal stigma may be a helpful and important factor to address in developing effective interventions that target intent to seek treatment.