Mental health stigma among military service members has been recognized as a significant barrier to mental health treatment as researchers (Greenberg, Langston, & Gould, 2007; Greene-Shortridge, Britt, & Castro, 2007; Hoge et al., 2004; Pietrzak, Johnson, Goldstein, Malley, & Southwick, 2009) have concluded that military service members are reluctant to engage in help seeking behaviors to avoid negative labeling in the form of stereotyping. Additionally, links have been made between leadership and stigma, acknowledging that military service members are more likely to seek mental health treatment if they perceive that their leadership is supportive (Britt, Wright, & Moore, 2012; Hoge et al., 2004; Wright et al., 2009). Each of the aforementioned authors has advocated for an increased attention on those military service members with mental health issues by offering new programs and providing leadership support. The military has attempted to address both of these suggestions with the introduction of resilience training and increased screening for mental health issues. Unfortunately, despite such interventions, prevalence rates for diagnoses such as PTSD remain at high levels. A reason for this may be due to a lack of attention to the origins of the messages that future leaders receive regarding mental health. The purpose of this study was to investigate the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs of US Army ROTC students and the possible presence of mental health stigma at their level of military involvement (i.e. pre-commission). The author sought to understand how biases against mental health are formed at one of the earliest points of cultural indoctrination within the military structure. This dissertation will contain an overview of the identified mental health beliefs of US Army ROTC students at a large southern university. How these beliefs relate to mental health stigma and help seeking behaviors will also be explored.

No description available.

This study was a simple "before" and "after" attitude measurement experiment using an experimental group and a control group. The attitude measurements were made before and after the subjects in the experimental group were presented an informational briefing about the Air Force ROTC training program. Both the experimental group and the control group were subject to exposure to the Air Force mass communication advertising during the two-month study period. The results indicate that the increased knowledge gained by the experimental group through its exposure to the informational briefing caused a negative change of attitude within the group. However, the control group had no significant change of attitude during the study period even though more than 87 percent of those subjects were exposed to some form of Air Force advertising.

No description available.

With the current military mental health crisis, it is important to understand the role of the leader in military mental health. First, the impact of military leader behaviors on the well-being of military personnel is reviewed. Next, the role of leader attitudes as a precursor to leader behaviors is discussed. The relation of leader behaviors to leader personality using the NEO Five Factor Model (FFM) is reviewed, as well as the relation of prejudicial attitudes to the NEO FFM personality factors. A research project is described that attempted to draw these concepts together, assessing the NEO FFM personality dimensions and mental health attitudes of US Army ROTC cadets, the future leaders of the US Army. No significant relations were observed between NEO FFM personality traits and mental health attitudes, even after controlling for Impression Management. Also, the predicted positive correlation between positive mental health attitudes and Impression Management was not found. These results suggest that more research and more refined measures are needed in the area of leader attitudes toward soldier mental health problems, and how those attitudes might impact the soldiers.