Willingness of Individuals to Seek Mental Health Treatment: The Impact of Gender and Parent Therapy Experience

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether parent therapy experience and gender influenced men\u27s and women\u27s attitudes toward seeking mental health treatment. Participants included 207 women and 212 men ages 18 to 30 years attending Western Kentucky University. Participants completed a demographics survey and the Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Treatment. Results indicated that more favorable attitudes toward seeking mental health services were exhibited by participants who reported that a parent attended therapy. Additionally, a gender difference in attitudes toward mental health services was uncovered, in that women were found to display more positive attitudes toward seeing therapy than men. Results also indicated that women whose mothers only attended therapy had more favorable attitudes towards mental health treatment than women whose fathers only attended therapy. Although not reaching a level of statistical significance, the study also uncovered a trend for men whose fathers only attended therapy to display greater levels of Indifference to Stigma than males whose mothers only attended therapy. Finally, as assessed in the demographics survey, as the relationship quality with the mother increased, individuals\u27 attitudes toward mental health services became more positive