title: Stigma and help seeking for mental health among college students.
abstract: Mental illness stigma has been identified by national policy makers as an important barrier to help seeking for mental health. Using a random sample of 5,555 students from a diverse set of 13 universities, we conducted one of the first empirical studies of the association of help-seeking behavior with both perceived public stigma and people's own stigmatizing attitudes (personal stigma). There were three main findings: (a) Perceived public stigma was considerably higher than personal stigma; (b) personal stigma was higher among students with any of the following characteristics: male, younger, Asian, international, more religious, or from a poor family; and (c) personal stigma was significantly and negatively associated with measures of help seeking (perceived need and use of psychotropic medication, therapy, and nonclinical sources of support), whereas perceived stigma was not significantly associated with help seeking. These findings can help inform efforts to reduce the role of stigma as a barrier to help seeking.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, USA. daneis@umich.edu
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Eisenberg
authors.forename: Marilyn F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Downs
authors.forename: Ezra
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Golberstein
authors.forename: Kara
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zivin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001213:Asian; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy*; D008603:Mental Health; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011203:Poverty; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011897:Random Allocation; D012067:Religion; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D013240:Stereotyping; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs