Date of Award

August 2021

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Educational Psychology

First Advisor

Marty Sapp

Committee Members

Bo Zhang, Marcellus Merritt, Jacqueline Nguyen

Keywords

Black Americans, help-seeking attitudes, mental health

Abstract

ABSTRACT

EXAMINING BLACK AMERICANS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT

By

Alannia Mosley-Jenneford

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2021 Under the Supervision of Marty Sapp, Ph.D.

The purpose of this study was to expand on the current literature on help-seeking attitudes among Black Americans. There is little research exploring the variables associated with Black American’s help-seeking attitudes. However, research has documented the underutilization of service among Black Americans. Literature suggests Black Americans do not seek services until symptoms become persistent and interfere with daily functioning. Evidence supports the relationship between help-seeking attitudes and racial mistrust, racial identity and help-seeking attitudes, and racial identity and preference for a Black therapist. To date, there is no literature investigating the relationship between preference for a Black therapist, cultural mistrust, racial identity, and help-seeking attitudes among Black Americans. The current study aimed to investigate whether there is a relationship between Black Americans’ attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help and the following variables: preference for a Black therapist, cultural mistrust, public and private regard predicted. Lastly, the study investigated whether there was a difference in attitudes among individuals with previous counseling experience and no previous counseling experiences.In order to test these hypotheses, 82 adults (ages 22-57) who self-identified as Black/African American were recruited using a random sampling method via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Participants completed the following questionnaires: The Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity Attitudes Towards Seeking Professional Psychological Help- Short Form, the Client Preference Scale, and the Cultural Mistrust Inventory. A correlation was used to assess a relationship between Blacks’ attitudes towards seeking professional psychological and the following variables: cultural mistrust, private regard, public regard, preference for a Black counselor. Findings from this study indicate a decrease in help-seeking attitudes among Blacks who have a higher mistrust for Whites, positive feelings towards the Black community, and preference for a Black counselor. Additionally, preferring a Black counselor in certain situations did not increase their attitudes towards MHS.

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