Background. Mori (2000) put forward evidence that international students were at greater risk for psychological problems. He also said that mental health concerns of international students on American campuses were often overlooked. Stigma associated with mental illness and seeking treatment is the reason most often cited that people do not seek counseling and other mental health services (Corrigan, 2004). No studies have focused on international students’ beliefs about service seeking or stigma around health treatment seeking. Objective. The basic aims of this study are to examine international students’ beliefs about mental health services and relationships between stigma and mental health treatment seeking. Method. Participants are 35 international students who were invited to fill out an online questionnaire. The measures included in the questionnaire were designed to collect demographic information (i.e. sex, age, country of birth, etc.), students’ perceived stigma regarding help seeking (i.e. social stigma), students’ overall distress level, students’ prior treatment seeking and willingness to seek treatment from various people (i.e. family/friends, psychologists, teachers, doctors, etc.), and students’ willingness to seek treatment from a psychologist in various settings (i.e. Community clinic, private practice, primary care, etc.). Results. International students at ETSU generally reported feeling moderate levels of stigma regarding mental health treatment [M=2.02, SD=.466, N=36 (1= little/no experienced stigma and 4 = extremely high levels of experienced stigma). Additionally, they reported being equally as likely to seek help from others as to deal with their troubles on their own (M=2.47, SD=.416, N=34). Among the students who hadn’t talked with family members/close friends, doctors, or psychologists about their problems, the more stigma that they felt, the less willing that they were to talk with family members/close friends, doctors, or psychologists in the future (r=-.474, p<.05, N=19; r=-.503, p<.01, N=27; r=-.689, p<.001, N=27). Among all international students, the more stigma they felt, the less willing that they were to seek treatment from a psychologist (counselor or therapist) working at their school or community behavior and health center (r=-.39, p<.05, N=30; r=-.415, p<.05, N=31). However, stigma was not found to be significantly correlated with treatment seeking from a psychologist working in any other setting (ie. private practice or doctors’ office). Implications. Even though the results show that international students generally only feel a moderate amount of stigma, the stigma that they do experience significantly influences their willingness to seek mental health treatment. Future research should focus on identifying new ways addressing this major barrier to mental health treatment seeking to hopefully increase mental health service utilization by international student on college campuses.

Introduction: People who experience mental illness are unlikely to seek help. Research suggests that mental illness stigma negatively impacts help-seeking, yet there is little information about factors that relate to stigma that are positively associated with help-seeking among those with compromised mental health. Emerging research suggests that aspects of the social identity perspective, namely group social identification and perceptions about the group, may provide insights as to how people who experience mental illness navigate help-seeking. Objective: In two studies we aimed to: (1) identify factors (i.e., social identification and perceptions of the group) that relate to stigma that are also associated with the multi-step process of help-seeking; and (2) explore if these factors and aspects of the help-seeking process that occur prior to service utilization (such as illness and symptom recognition) are positively associated with behavioral service utilization. Method: Study 1 employed Amazon's Mechanical Turk to recruit 90 participants who reported being diagnosed with a mental illness and not actively seeking treatment (i.e., medication or seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist). Study 2 employed Facebook to recruit 131 participants who self-reported a mental illness diagnosis. Results: Controlling for symptom severity, mental illness stigma was positively associated with social identification, which in turn positively impacted help-seeking in Study 1. Further, the relationship between social identification and help-seeking was strongest among those with a negative perception of the mental illness group. In Study 2, results indicated that social identification predicted behavioral service utilization, providing support for Study 1. Conclusion: Taken together, these findings suggest that social identification as a person with a mental illness is positively associated with the multi-step process of help-seeking and may be important for those who experience mental illness stigma to get help that enables and facilitates better functioning.

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Suicide ideation and suicide impact a rapidly rising number of individuals each year, however our society has not envisioned a way to increase help-seeking behaviors to decrease these numbers. The literature discusses many barriers and hurdles to help-seeking, but the focus of SI within the context of help-seeking has not been studied in depth. The purpose of this qualitative study was to increase knowledge on the process through which individuals determine how and whom to ask for help when experiencing SI. Two sections of themes were found: things that encourage individuals to seek or continue to seek help, and things that discourage individuals from seeking help or encourage them to discontinue seeking help.

This study was conducted to elucidate and to compare some factors which influence the host-seeking behaviour of adult female simuliids in two geographically isolated regions. Various observations and experiments were performed with the knowledge of a mechanism inherent in the feeding behaviour of simuliids. This approach has helped to clarify the orientation of simuliids to their hosts and has enhanced the understanding of the transmission of parasites by these flies. Further, it was found valuable to determine whether the behaviour state of simuliids influenced their reaction to visual stimuli. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Health literacy is the skill needed to acquire, read, understand, and use health related information to make informed healthcare decisions. It is also the skill needed to follow and maintain a treatment plan. Having a high or adequate health literacy level is important because possessing poor health literacy skill can have a negative impact on one's overall health. This research is important because there are few studies available on the health literacy levels of undergraduate college students. The majority of health literacy studies focus on at risk or underserved populations with low education. Previous studies have shown that education is not a strong indicator of good health literacy skill. The aim of this study is to evaluate the health literacy rate of students at the University of Central Florida (UCF), and to analyze the health information seeking behavior. Students were given the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA) to assess the levels of health literacy among undergraduate students. The Health Seeking Information Behaviors (HSIB) survey was also given to analyze common information seeking behaviors among college students. Additional questions were included to collect demographic information to compare differences in health literacy levels among different subgroups of students. The survey questionnaires were built into "Qualtrics, an online survey system, and shared with undergraduate students at UCF for participation. Survey results were downloaded into SPSS software version 25. Data analysis included one-way ANOVA to assess possible associations between student demographics and level of health literacy skill and health information seeking behavior among participants. Survey results showed that students at UCF had very high health literacy skills among all demographics. The study results suggest the need for development of a survey tool measuring health literacy skills of an educated population be designed and validated to assess the health literacy skills of an educated population.

Despite the relatively high availability of free or low-cost psychological care many service members and veterans choose not to seek services (Vogt et al., 2014). This paper aimed to investigate whether military culture moderates the relationship between stigma and help-seeking intentions among service members. Prior work has suggested that service member underutilization of services may be the result of military culture and its emphasis on placing the mission above personal needs but this finding has not been clearly demonstrated in the literature. The findings of this study revealed that high commitment to military values coupled with heightened perceptions of stigma may play an important role in a service member’s decision to seek out psychological treatment. These results lend support to the effects of commitment to core military values and perceived stigma on psychological help-seeking intentions and demonstrate the need to consider these factors when tailoring psychological interventions for military personnel.

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