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In this study, we examined exposure to stereotypical movie portrayals of American Indians, motivations to respond without prejudice, and awareness of White privilege on racist attitudes. European American participants ( N = 232) were randomly assigned to watch stereotypical representations of American Indians or control videos. Hierarchical regression results revealed that higher internal motivations to respond without prejudice and awareness were associated with lower levels of racist attitudes. Higher external motivations to respond without prejudice were associated with higher levels of modern racist attitudes. For participants high in awareness, there was no significant difference in modern racist attitudes between the control and stereotype conditions. For participants low in awareness, those in the control condition reported lower modern racist attitudes than those in the stereotype condition. Results suggest awareness is an important predictor of lower racist attitudes but needs to be reconceptualized within the counseling literature. Social justice implications and limitations are discussed.

Brenner, Rachel/0000-0003-1069-9591; Rubin, Mark/0000-0002-6483-8561; TOPKAYA, Nursel/0000-0002-8469-9140; , Makilim Nunes Baptista/0000-0001-6519-254X; Al-Darmaki, Prof. Fatima/0000-0001-6452-0708; Mak, Winnie/0000-0002-9714-7847; Lannin, Daniel/0000-0001-8203-8253; Heath, Patrick/0000-0002-7939-4916 WOS: 000400118500001 Stigma is an important barrier to seeking psychological services worldwide. Two types of stigma exist: public stigma and self-stigma. Scholars have argued that public stigma leads to self-stigma, and then self-stigma is the primary predictor of attitudes toward seeking psychological services. However, this assertion is largely limited to U.S. samples. The goal of this research was to provide a first step in understanding the relationship between public stigma, self-stigma, and attitudes toward seeking psychological services in international contexts (N = 3,276; Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Portugal, Romania, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and United States). Using structural equation modeling, we found that self-stigma mediated the relationship between public stigma and attitudes toward seeking services among college students in each country and region. However, differences in path strengths emphasize the need to pay attention to the role of public and self-stigma on attitudes toward seeking psychological services throughout the world.

Less than 1/3 of college men seek psychological help per year when experiencing mental health concerns. Many believe this is because socialized masculine norms are incongruent with help-seeking decisions. In line with this, adherence to masculine norms, like emotional control and self-reliance, is consistently linked to factors associated with lower use of counseling. Identifying constructs that buffer, or reduce, the relationship between masculine norm adherence and common barriers to seeking help, like help-seeking self-stigma and resistance to self-disclosing, could shed light on mechanisms through which effective interventions could be developed. As such, this study examined whether self-compassion, or the ability to show oneself kindness and understanding in the face of challenges, moderated the relationship between masculine norm adherence and both help-seeking self-stigma and the risks associated with self-disclosing to a counselor in a sample of 284 undergraduate men (Mage = 19.68, range = 18-30). Results indicate that self-compassion is associated with lower levels of help-seeking self-stigma and disclosure risks. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, self-compassion buffered the relationship between overall masculine norm adherence and each of these barriers. Furthermore, when specific masculine norms were examined, self-compassion buffered the relationship between emotional control and disclosure risks. These results support the need for future research focused on the development and assessment of self-compassion based interventions aimed at decreasing the barriers undergraduate men experience toward seeking psychological help. (PsycINFO Database Record

Stigma associated with seeking help has been found to be a key help-seeking barrier, however its role is less clear for: (a) adolescents, (b) groups outside the United States and (c) different types of therapy. This study addresses these omissions by examining the relationships between perceptions of public stigma of mental illness and the self-stigma of seeking help, and how they are related to help-seeking attitudes and intentions for both individual and group therapy among adolescents in Israel (N = 238). Path analysis confirmed that self-stigma of seeking help was negatively related to attitudes towards psychological help which was then positively related to intentions to seek help, across both individual and group therapy. Consistent with the only other study conducted in Israel, but contrasting research from other parts of the world, the relationship between perceptions of public stigma of mental illness and self-stigma of seeking help was not present for either individual or group therapy. ...

According to cultivation theory, people learn information about the world from exposure to media and according to social cognitive theory, we learn how to interact with our social environment through observation of others. Together, these provide an explanation for why stereotypical media portrayals might increase biased attitudes. However, no research has examined the connection between media portrayals and biased attitudes for American Inidans, a group who are only represented in .2-.4% of American media (Fryberg, Markus, Oyserman, & Stone, 2008). The purpose of this study is to assess the role of stereotypical media portrayals of American Indians on both explicit and implicit attitudes and examine the potential mediating impact of both motivation to respond without prejudice and awareness of White privilege on these relationships. In this study participants were randomly assigned to watch either a series of videos with stereotypical representations of American Indians or a series of control videos. Measures of explicitly biased attitudes (modern racism and colorblind racial attitudes), implicitly biased attitudes, awareness of White privilege, and motivations to respond without prejudice (both internal and external) were assessed pre and post-test. Results from three separate hierarchical regression analyses suggest that media does impact modern racist attitudes towards American Indians, but not general colorblind racial attitudes nor implicit attitudes towards American Indians. Importantly, this relationship between media portrayals and modern racist attitudes is moderated by one’s awareness of White privilege such that higher awareness of White privilege only led to less endorsement of modern racist attitudes towards American Indians when not presented with stereotypical portrayals of American Indians. There were no differences between those low and high on awareness when stereotypical media portrayals were present. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Objective: This study examined the relationship between public and self-stigma of seeking behavioral health services, and help-seeking attitudes and intent in a sample of active duty military personnel currently being assessed for traumatic brain injuries in a military health center. Although it has been suggested that many military personnel in need of care do not seek services due to concerns with stigma it is not fully clear what role different types of stigma play in the process. Method: Using previously collected data from a clinical sample of 97 military personnel, we conducted path analyses to test the mediation effects of self-stigma on the relationship between public stigma and attitudes toward and intentions to seek behavioral health care. Results: In contrast to a model of military stigma but in line with research with civilian samples, results from this study indicate that self-stigma fully mediates the relationship between public stigma and help-seeking attitudes and intentions. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: These results indicate that programming aimed at increasing mental health care use in the military might best focus on reducing self-stigma associated with seeking mental health services.