Attitudes and Willingness to Seek Counseling Among College Students

People may view counseling as a last resort to help with problems. Individuals may utilize other resources, such as friends and family, before seeking professional help (Hinson & Swanson, 1993). Although the research on why people decide to avoid mental health counseling is abundant, the literature is unclear as to whether certain aspects of one’s life can affect whether or not an individual will seek counseling. Participants will complete several online measures to examine the relationship between gender, culture, shame, and stigma on one’s attitude and willingness to seek counseling. A series of One-Way Analysis of Variances will be conducted to determine if gender and cultural background affects self-stigma, public stigma and willingness to seek counseling. I predict that men will have more negative attitudes towards counseling than women and will be less willing to seek counseling services than women. I also predict that Caucasians will have more positive attitudes towards counseling and more willingness to seek help than people of other racial backgrounds. Lastly, I predict that both self-stigma and public stigma will be correlated to ones attitudes and willingness to seek counseling; however, self-stigma will have a larger correlation than public stigma