Mental health stigma occurs when people have negative thoughts and beliefs of those with mental health illnesses or mental health treatment. Mental health stigma is related to an assortment of negative outcomes including discrimination in housing and employment, reduced usage of mental health services, and poor mental health outcomes. These implications may be particularly salient for ethnic minorities such as African Americans and Latinos who already suffer from other types of discrimination. This study examines perceived and personal mental health stigma in African American and Latino college students from a nontraditional university to help elucidate factors related to the development of mental health stigma. Students completed surveys concerning their stigma beliefs. African American students were found to have higher rates of mental health stigma than Latino students. Furthermore, anxiety about those with mental illness was related to greater mental health stigma for both groups. For African Americans, it was found that their perception of their ability to visibly identify those with mental illness was related to greater mental health stigma. These findings suggest that interventions to reduce mental health stigma in college students should target specific ethnic minority groups and focus on issues that are particularly salient to those communities.

The present study examined the effects of perpetrator sex category, victim confrontation, observer sex category, and observer attitudes on attributions of blame and behavioral stability for partner violence. Data were collected from 728 college-aged students enrolled at 2 universities in the United States. Results demonstrated that males and females attributed less blame and behavioral stability to female perpetrators than male perpetrators, especially if the perpetrator was provoked. Moreover, attitudes toward women and violence were important for predicting attributions, and some of the evidence for observer effects was reduced to nonsignificance once these variables were added to the model.

Jigsaw classroom research has primarily explored racial relationships at the primary and secondary educational levels. The present study explored whether the jigsaw classroom would have an effect on students’ attitudes about their own academic abilities and practices at the university level. The present study also sought to illuminate the necessary time course for the technique. Three sections of students in a cognitive psychology course participated. One section received a full jigsaw exposure, one received a reduced jigsaw exposure, and one received no jigsaw exposure. Posttests reveal that students given the full jigsaw exposure report an increased ability to teach psychological concepts to other students compared to the control condition. Moreover, there is evidence that the jigsaw technique increases the students’ ability to communicate orally and their belief in themselves as scholars.

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The current study explores the intersection of two trends of interest in higher education: reported increases in academic entitlement (AE) and increases in the proportion of students considered nontraditional. AE has shown to have negative effects in the classroom and for students. Based on reports from educators, levels of AE may be lower for nontraditional students. The current study sought to understand the level of AE in nontraditional students, compare AE levels with traditional students, and investigate if specific nontraditional factors have larger impacts on AE. Four hundred and twenty-nine participants were assessed for nontraditional factors and their current level of AE. Nontraditional students were found to have lower levels of AE than traditional students, having more nontraditional factors predicted lower AE, and AE was found to vary within nontraditional grouping levels. Additionally, age and hours worked were found to be individual factors that best predicted AE levels.