Advisor
O'Halloran, M. Sean
Advisor
Rings, Jeffrey A.
Committee Member
Black, Linda
Department
Counseling Psychology
Institution
University of Northern Colorado
Type of Resources
Text
Place of Publication
Greeley (Colo.)
Publisher
University of Northern Colorado
Date Created
8-1-2015
Genre
Thesis
Extent
299 pages
Digital Origin
Born digital
Description
Help seeking behaviors among college students is characterized by pervasive underutilization. The most common reason why students avoid treatment for mental illness is the fear of being stigmatized. The field of psychology has recognized and examined the stigma associated with gender and ethnicity, but has not fully explored the stigma related to other identities. Social class is one of the most meaningful cultural dimensions in people’s lives. Despite this recognition, examination of class, class inequality and classism are generally missing from psychological discourse even when multiculturalism is a central focus. This paper documents original research examining the influence of student experiences with classism on attitudes toward seeking mental health services and on psychological outcomes including emotional distress, college self-efficacy, and resilience. A hierarchical regression analysis evaluated whether students’ experiences with classism explained additional variance in help seeking attitudes after accounting for gender, ethnicity and social class status. This supports that a student‘s gender, ethnicity and perceived social class was helpful toward understanding help seeking behaviors. This study is additive by providing empirical support for the claim that a student s experience with classism is a significant part of the dynamic that explains student attitudes toward seeking mental health services. The data demonstrated that experiences with classism explained an additional proportion of the variance in attitudes toward seeking mental health services above and beyond gender, ethnicity and social class status. In terms of psychological distress, the data suggest that experiencing instances of classism was related to greater psychological distress. This research also found a small negative correlation between experiences with classism and college self-efficacy. Clinical implications and interventions to more fully address the experience of classism for college student are discussed.
Degree type
PhD
Degree Name
Doctoral
Language
English
Local Identifiers
Walters_unco_0161D_10411
Rights Statement
Copyright is held by author.
