Mental health stigma has been identified as a barrier to help-seeking in the United States. Research suggests that insecure attachment may contribute to higher mental health stigma and lower help-seeking behavior. This may be particularly salient in military personnel who tend to report higher mental health stigma than the general population. Evidence suggests that both supportive and destructive military leadership are related to service members' attitudes toward seeking help. In the current study, a sample of military service members and veterans (N = 232) completed an online survey regarding mental health stigma, military leadership experiences, attachment strategies, and mental health help-seeking behaviors. Findings indicated that destructive and supportive leadership experiences were significantly related to self and public stigma, and self-stigma mediated the relationship between destructive and supportive leadership experiences and likelihood to seek help. Attachment anxiety predicted higher self and public stigma, while attachment avoidance predicted high self-stigma but low public stigma, with high self-stigma partially mediating the relationship between attachment avoidance and help seeking.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1538748 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | McGuffin, James |
| Contributors | Riggs, Shelley A., Watkins, Clifton E., Hook, Joshua N. |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | v, 74 pages, Text |
| Rights | Use restricted to UNT Community, McGuffin, James, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved. |
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