Mental Health Literacy, stigma, and attitudes toward help-seeking at school for Asian- and Latino-American adolescents

Abstract

Although adolescents are most likely to receive mental health services in the school setting compared with other settings, few studies have examined barriers to mental health help-seeking at school for ethnic minority students. The current mixed-methods study utilized surveys and semi-structured interviews to examine the relation between mental health literacy (MHL), stigma, and attitudes toward formal help-seeking among 56 adolescents (50.0% Asian-American, 44.6% Latino-American, 5.4% Asian/Latino bi-racial; M age= 17.28 years, SD= 2.28). As hypothesized, stigma negatively predicted attitudes toward formal help-seeking. However, contrary to our hypotheses and prior work, MHL did not predict attitudes toward formal help-seeking. Qualitative analysis revealed important knowledge, attitudinal, and practical barriers that inhibit minority adolescents from seeking help for mental health problems at school. The current work has implications to assist school personnel and service providers in understanding and reducing barriers to care, particularly for Asian- and Latino-American adolescents at school.