Differences in stigma and attitudes toward counseling between college student-athletes and nonathletes
Presentation
Overview
Overview
Description
Recently, there has been growing interest in student-athlete mental health help-seeking. This body of research has blossomed alongside help-seeking research in the general college population. However, researchers have inconsistently found differences between student-athletes and nonathletes regarding levels of stigma and attitudes toward counseling (e.g., Barnard, 2016; Leimer, Leon, & Shelley, 2014; Watson, 2005). One limitation of previous comparison studies is that they do not control for factors known to influence attitudes and stigma, such as gender and previous treatment history. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine differences in stigma and attitudes toward counseling between a sample of student-athletes and nonathletes while controlling for these variables. This study was part of a larger study focusing on student-athletes, which included more measures and had different research questions. The current sample (N = 902), consisted of student-athletes from t wo universities representing NCAA Division I and III (n = 243) and nonathletes from the same Division I university. The relevant measures completed by participants for this study addressed public stigma, self-stigma, and attitudes toward seeking mental health services. We used MANCOVA to analyze differences between the groups, controlling for gender and previous help-seeking experience. After controlling for these covariates, there were no differences between the groups on stigma or attitudes, Wilks λ= 1.0, F(3, 893) = .72, p = .54, partial eta squared = .00. We discuss possible reasons for the improvement of stigma and attitudes amongst student-athletes. Additionally, the implications for future outreach and intervention with student-athlete populations are discussed.
