College is an ideal setting to evaluate and treat mental health issues. Most mental health disorders have first onset by young adulthood and half of all young adults attend some form of post-secondary institution. Additionally, many institutions offer free or low-cost mental health care right on campus which removes two major barriers to treatment, accessibility and finances. Despite this, most mental health disorders in college students go untreated. Students with alcohol use disorders go untreated most frequently (only 7.6% receiving treatment). Interestingly, comorbid alcohol use disorders and anxiety/mood disorders show much greater rates (42-58%) of receiving treatment despite those with unimorbid anxiety disorders (16%) receiving treatment) and unimorbid mood disorders (34% receiving treatment) showing low rates of getting needed help. This investigation examined possible reasons why such a large percentage of students who are experiencing frequent and severe negative consequences of alcohol use, anxiety disorders and mood disorders are not in treatment. Analyses revealed that problem drinking college students with comorbid mood/anxiety disorders showed greater treatment seeking interest and behavior. However, this could be the result of greater negative consequences of alcohol use among the comorbid problem drinkers. Additionally, results of a model that tested the effects of alcohol problem recognition, perceived efficacy of treatment, and perceived accessibility of treatment on student treatment seeking behavior were mixed. Finally, positive consequences of drinking did not show a relationship to treatment seeking behavior but were an incremental predictor of alcohol use problems above and beyond more commonly used measures of college alcohol problems. Implications for future policy and clinical developments are discussed. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Science. / Fall Semester, 2011. / July 12, 2011. / alcohol, anxiety, college, comorbidity, depression, treatment seeking / Includes bibliographical references. / Norman B. Schmidt, Professor Directing Thesis; Jeanette Taylor, Committee Member; Jon Maner, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_253243 |
| Contributors | Capron, Daniel (authoraut), Schmidt, Norman B. (professor directing thesis), Taylor, Jeanette (committee member), Maner, Jon (committee member), Department of Psychology (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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