Unblocking the pathway to psychological care: The role of stigma and mental health literacy in general help-seeking for psychological distress

• Main Author: Del Puerto, Abigail P.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Distress (Psychology); Mental health; Health literacy; Stigma (Social psychology); Clinical Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdm_psych/25; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=etdm_psych
• Institution: De La Salle University

Stigma of seeking psychological help is a significant barrier to help-seeking for psychological distress. Various anti-stigma campaigns utilize mental health literacy programs expecting an upturn in help-seeking. By integrating parts of the Modified Labelling Theory (Link et al, 1987, 1989), the Health Belief Model (Rosenstock, 1966, 1974, Rosenstock et al. 1988) and the Help-Seeking Process (Rickwood & Thomas, 2012), a moderated mediation model was conceptualized theorizing that self-stigma mediates the negative link between public stigma and help-seeking both in terms of intention and behavior, and mental health literacy moderates the stigma – help-seeking links by serving as a protective factor. A total of 258 adults from the province of Albay mainly from rural communities completed measures of the variables. Findings revealed that public stigma strongly predicted self-stigma, but neither public stigma nor self-stigma acted as potent barriers to help-seeking intention and behavior. Andrew Hayes' PROCESS macro mediation and moderation revealed that self-stigma does not mediate the link between public stigma and general help-seeking intention and behavior, and mental health literacy did not moderate the relationship between public stigma and self-stigma, as well as self-stigma and help-seeking. It was found, however, that mental health literacy was significantly negatively associated with public and self-stigma while significantly positively linked with help-seeking intention. Possible explanations including the context of the community sample were elucidated. Clinical implications and recommendations were discussed.