The relationship of public stigma, self-stigma, & hiya on professional psychological help-seeking intentions of Filipino emerging adults

• Main Author: Reyes, Collin M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2024
• Subjects: Stigma (Social psychology); Shame; Clinical Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdm_psych/73; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdm_psych/article/1072/viewcontent/2024_Reyes_CompleteVersionETD.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

Culture plays an important role and significantly affects a person’s intention to seek help for mental health problems. With stigma as one of the prominent barriers to help-seeking, research endeavors are also focusing on other factors that contribute to the underutilization of psychological services. Literature and research suggested exploring the role of cultural factors and how they impact help-seeking attitudes and behaviors. The present study quantitatively investigated the relationship between two types of stigmas, public stigma, and self-stigma, on Filipino emerging adults' professional psychological help-seeking intentions. In addition, the Filipino cultural value hiya was tested as a moderator in the association of the stigmas attached to seeking mental health help. 464 Filipino emerging adults participated in the survey utilizing the instruments Stigma Scale for Receiving Psychological Help, Self-stigma of Seeking Help, General Help-Seeking Questionnaire, and Panukat ng Hiya bilang isang Pagpapahalaga. A path analysis was administered to test the moderated mediation model. Findings showed that public stigma had an indirect relationship with professional psychological help-seeking intentions but did not have a significant direct effect. Findings also revealed that internalized stigma or self-stigma mediated the relationship. The interaction effects were significant, and the cultural value’s moderating effect was confirmed. Results highlighted the importance of the sociocultural context in examining the association between mental health stigma and professional help-seeking intentions. Implications on clinical practice focused on having socially and culturally adept interventions and strengthened psychoeducation that aims at reducing internalized stigma on mental health and professional help-seeking. Keywords: public stigma, self-stigma, psychological help-seeking intentions, cultural factors, hiya