Perceived Public Stigma and the Willingness to Seek Counseling: The Mediating Roles of Self-Stigma and Attitudes Toward Counseling

• Published in: Journal of counseling psychology 2007-01, Vol.54 (1), p.40-50
• Main Authors: Vogel, David L, Wade, Nathaniel G, Hackler, Ashley H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attitude Measures; Attitude towards mental illness; Attitudes; Biological and medical sciences; Counseling; Counseling Psychology; Counselling; Emotions; Female; Health Care Seeking Behavior; Help Seeking; Helpseeking; Human; Male; Medical sciences; Perceptions; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Self-Concept; Self-Stigma; Social Attitudes; Social Bias; Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry; Stigma; Stigmatization; Structural Equation Models; Undergraduate Students
• ISSN: 0022-0167; 1939-2168
• DOI: 10.1037/0022-0167.54.1.40

This study examined the mediating effects of the self-stigma associated with seeking counseling and attitudes toward seeking counseling on the link between perceived public stigma and willingness to seek counseling for psychological and interpersonal concerns. Structural equation modeling of data from 676 undergraduates indicated that the link between perceived public stigma and willingness to seek counseling was fully mediated by self-stigma and attitudes. Perceptions of public stigma contributed to the experience of self-stigma, which, in turn, influenced help-seeking attitudes and eventually help-seeking willingness. Furthermore, 57% of the variance in attitudes toward counseling and 34% of the variance in willingness to seek counseling for psychological and interpersonal concerns were accounted for in the proposed model.