Stigma, Pluralistic Ignorance, and Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services Among Police Officers

Abstract

Due to the stressors inherent in the law enforcement profession, police officers may be at increased risk for a variety of personal and mental health-related concerns. Despite these tendencies, officers have historically refrained from seeking psychological services. Several factors have been identified to explain their hesitance, including public stigma and self-stigma regarding mental health issues. In this study, sworn police officers in Texas and Oklahoma completed a 62-item online survey related to their attitudes toward seeking mental health services, mental health stigma, willingness to seek services, and perceptions of other officers' willingness to seek services. The first objective of the study was to identify the role of public stigma and self-stigma in predicting attitudes toward seeking mental health services among police officers. Consistent with the study hypotheses, the results indicate that public stigma and self-stigma were negatively correlated with attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Furthermore, self-stigma fully mediated the relationship between public stigma and attitudes toward seeking help, and the overall model explained 56% of the variance in attitude scores. Previous research has suggested that officers may tend to underestimate their colleagues' willingness to seek psychological services, thus demonstrating the concept of pluralistic ignorance. The second objective of the study was to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the pluralistic ignorance effect as it pertains to help-seeking attitudes among police officers, with regard to several common presenting concerns. As expected, results suggest that officers underestimated their colleagues' willingness to seek mental health services for family issues, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, and physiological complaints due to stress. In other words, officers tended to believe that their peers were less willing to seek mental health services than they actually were. Implications for training and future research are discussed.

A longitudinal assessment of the road to mental readiness training among municipal police

“…Participants were able to recall R2MR components 12 months after training. On the self-report measures, participants did not report significant changes in mental health symptoms, resilience, or work engagement, but did report small increases in mental health knowledge and small temporary decreases in stigma; in contrast, the open-ended participant responses indicated that most found the training helpful for increasing mental health awareness, understanding, and communication skills, as well as helping to reduce stigma by correcting erroneous beliefs about mental health and perceptions of consequences for accessing mental health care (Karaffa & Koch, 2016), which may increase help seeking. In this context, researching the R2MR program delivered by MHCC, which is a brief intervention using cognitive behavioral therapy style skills developed for a broad audience, has provided important results; nevertheless, PSP researchers and trainers should explore the contemporary DND adaptation of R2MR, as well as continue pursuing opportunities to improve evidence-informed cognitive behavioral therapy style training programs, intervention programs, and implementation processes in support of PSP resilience and mental health.…”

“…Concerns about stigma and possible identifiability may also have impacted participant reports (e.g. Halpern, Gurevich, Schwartz, & Brazeau, 2009;Henderson, Van Hasselt, Leduc, & Couwels, 2016;Karaffa & Koch, 2016). Relatedly, in the absence of diagnostic interviews assessments of symptoms and skills, as well as absent assessment of objective behavioral indicators, the current results may not replicate and may not reflect the full impact of the training program.…”

“…interactions with hostile suspects, offenders, and emotionally distraught victims; Anderson, Litzenberger, & Plecas, 2002;Garcia, Nesbary, & Gu, 2004). Among police officers, social stressors produced from civilian, suspect, co-worker, and supervisor interactions, have also been significantly related to reduced productivity, increased aggressiveness (Karaffa & Koch, 2016), turnover intention, psychological distress, and emotional exhaustion (Adams & Buck, 2010). The organizational and operational stressors that police officers regularly face can be associated with negative mental health outcomes (van der Velden, Kleber, Grievink, & Yzermans, 2010) including depression (Wang et al, 2010), maladaptive coping strategies (i.e.…”

“…The organizational and operational stressors that police officers regularly face can be associated with negative mental health outcomes (van der Velden, Kleber, Grievink, & Yzermans, 2010) including depression (Wang et al, 2010), maladaptive coping strategies (i.e. anger repression; Hakan Can & Hendy, 2014), and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Maguen et al, 2009), as well as risk for physical health problems, burnout, smoking, sleep disorders, alcohol abuse, and suicide ideation (Anshel, 2000;Brown & Campbell, 1994;Gershon, Barocas, Canton, Li, & Vlahov, 2009;Karaffa & Koch, 2016;Waters & Ussery, 2007). Karaffa and Koch (2016, p. 760) reported that "the accumulation of stress can overwhelm even the most resilient officers".…”

“…The potential disconnect between an officer's personal view of seeking mental health assistance and what they perceive other officers' perceptions to be-pluralistic ignorance-can result in additional stress when the perception potentiates the "out group" in relation to the police subculture (Rose & Unnithan, 2015). Pluralistic ignorance, if left unchecked, can perpetuate officers' reticence to seek help (Karaffa & Koch, 2016); however, Millar (2002, p. 163) reported that, contrary to an officer's own expectations, those who sought mental health support and shared their experience received "overwhelming support" from colleagues (Millar, 2002).…”