Perceived and Personal Mental Health Stigma in Latino and African American College Students

Abstract

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.

Exploring Racial Disparities in Mental Health Diagnoses and Neighborhood Disorganization Among an Urban Cohort of Children and Adolescents with Chronic Medical Conditions

“…Several studies have found that Blacks associate higher levels of stigma with mental illness than Whites. [34][35][36][37] Parents who hold stigmatizing views of mental illness are less likely to acknowledge that their child has a mental health problem and also may attempt to protect their child from being labeled. 38 In addition, studies have documented that Black cultural values of personal strength and addressing problems within the family or through religious practices may view seeking professional help for mental health problems as a sign of weakness.…”

Examining the impact of COVID‐19 in ethnically diverse families with young children with intellectual and developmental disabilities

“…DeFreitas et al . 2018). The caregiving burden and experiences of Hispanic/Latinx caregivers may be compounded by these contextual variables, which may contribute to increased support needs (Blanche et al .…”

Perception of Stigma and Its Associated Factors Among Patients With Major Depressive Disorder: A Multicenter Survey From an Asian Population

“…Mental health stigma can be conceptualized in a variety of ways, and it has usually been classified as perceived stigma and personal stigma. Perceived stigma concerns negative attitudes where one believes that society as a whole holds about individuals with mental illness, while personal stigma focuses on one’s own beliefs about individuals with mental illness (8). Stigma emerged as an important barrier to the treatment of depression and other mental illnesses.…”