Irish College Students’ Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help: The Role of Gender and Stigma

O’Malley, Ciara (2022) Irish College Students’ Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help: The Role of Gender and Stigma. Undergraduate thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

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Abstract

Aims: The present study sought to provide a greater understanding of the factors influencing students’ attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help, specifically gender, self-stigma and public stigma. This study examined how being male or female influences these attitudes, as well as how being male or female influences levels of stigma.

Method: Participants were recruited online through social media using convenience sampling (n = 143) and completed an online questionnaire containing demographic information, the Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help – Short Form, the Stigmatizing Attitudes and Believability scale and the Perceptions of Stigmatisation by Others for Seeking Help scale.

Results: Results showed that higher levels of self and public stigma were negatively associated with help-seeking attitudes. Multiple regression analysis found that both types of stigma predicted help-seeking attitudes to a statistically significant level, as did gender, and public stigma was the greatest predictor. These variables explained 21.8% of variance in help-seeking attitudes. Males and females differed significantly in their help-seeking attitudes and levels of self-stigma, but not public stigma.

Conclusion: Findings provide a greater understanding of the factors influencing help-seeking attitudes among Irish students. Importantly, the findings challenge the assumption that self-stigma is the greatest predictor of help-seeking attitudes, and therefore, have important implications regarding stigma reduction campaigns.

Item Type:	Thesis (Undergraduate)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > Psychology L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain > Ireland
Divisions:	School of Business > BA (Honours) in Psychology
Depositing User:	Clara Chan
Date Deposited:	19 Jul 2022 14:42
Last Modified:	19 Jul 2022 14:42
URI:	https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/5672

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