Mental health help seeking in middle school students: The implication of gender, financial status, and stigma

Mental health has been declining in young people for over a decade. Help-seeking has also been an issue for adolescents struggling with mental illness, as evidenced by low rates of service utilization, often due to costs of services. There is a gap in the literature surrounding data collected from young people and their perceptions of their help seeking behaviors. The current study investigated perceived barriers to mental health services and how the barriers relate to gender, financial status, and stigma. The research sample consisted of students from a middle school in Indiana, U.S. Self-report measures were completed to determine stigma and help-seeking intentions. Results demonstrated gender differences in perceived barriers, an inclination toward financial related barriers in students from low-income households, and stigma affecting barriers and help-seeking behaviors. Results indicated a student group with the lowest amount of help seeking intention who could be the focus of future, targeted interventions.

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Work Title Mental health help seeking in middle school students: The implication of gender, financial status, and stigma
Access
Penn State
Creators
  1. Haley Snyder
Keyword
  1. Help seeking
  2. Adolescents
  3. Gender
  4. Stigma
  5. Financial status
License In Copyright (Rights Reserved)
Work Type Research Paper
Publication Date November 2023
Language
  1. English
Deposited November 28, 2023

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Version 1
published

  • Created
  • Updated
  • Added Creator Haley Snyder
  • Added Snyder_MRP_Defense_Revised_11.20.23.pdf
  • Updated Keyword, Language, License Show Changes
    Keyword
    • help seeking, adolescents, gender, stigma, financial status
    Language
    • English
    License
    • https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/
  • Published
  • Updated Keyword Show Changes
    Keyword
    • help seeking, adolescents, gender, stigma, financial status
    • Help seeking, Adolescents, Gender, Stigma, Financial status
  • Updated