Despite a high prevalence of suicide ideation and mental
health issues amongst university students, the stigma of help-seeking remains a
barrier to those who are in real need of professional support. Social identity
theory states that help received from an ingroup source is more welcome and
less threatening to one's identity than that from a source perceived as
outgroup. Therefore, we hypothesized that students' stigma toward seeking help
from their university mental health service would differ based on the strength
of their identification with the university.
An online survey including measures of stigma of suicide,
group identification, experience with help-seeking and exposure to suicide was
administered to Irish university students (N =
493).
Group identification was a significant predictor of
help-seeking attitudes after controlling for already known predictors. Contrary
to our expectations, those who identified more strongly with their university
demonstrated a higher stigma of seeking help from their university mental
health service.
Results are discussed in relation to self-categorization
theory and the concept of normative fit. Practical implications for mental
health service provision in universities are also addressed, specifically the
need for a range of different mental health services both on and off-campus.
Below: Relationship between stigma of help-seeking and group identification for males and females
Full article
at:
By:
1Department of Psychology, University of
Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
2Pieta House, Centre for the Prevention of
Suicide and Self-Harm, Lucan, Ireland
Edited by: Gian Mauro Manzoni, eCampus University, Italy
Reviewed by: Silvia Serino, I.R.C.C.S Istituto Auxologico
Italiano, Italy; Julio Eduardo Armijo, Universidad de Chile, Chile
*Correspondence: Michelle Kearns, Department of Psychology,
University of Limerick, Co. Limerick, Ireland ; Email: ei.lu@snraek.ellehcim
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