Stigma Among College Students: Associations with Help-Seeking and Social Support

Stigma is one of the major obstacles to positive help-seeking attitudes and increasing our knowledge regarding the construct is crucial in enhancing help-seeking attitudes. We examined the relationship between self- and public stigma, help-seeking attitudes, and social support among college students. Using cluster analysis, we identified four mutually exclusive groups based on their levels of self and public stigma including (a) No stigma, (b) Moderate Self-stigma, (c) High Public Stigma, and (d) High Stigma groups. Employing ANOVAs, we found that scores of help-seeking attitudes and social support were different by the group membership. Notably, help-seeking attitudes in the High Stigma Group were significantly lower, compared to the other three groups, and those in the Moderate Self-Stigma Group were significantly lower than in both the High Public Stigma and the High Stigma groups. Social support from the No Stigma group was significantly higher than that of the other three groups. Implications and future research directions were discussed.