Journal article
Stigma, Pluralistic Ignorance, and Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services Among Police Officers
Criminal justice and behavior, Vol.43(6), pp.759-777
06/01/2016
DOI: 10.1177/0093854815613103
Abstract
Due to stressors in the police profession, officers may be at risk for a variety of personal and mental health-related concerns. However, they have historically refrained from seeking professional mental health services. Several factors have been identified to explain their hesitance, including stigma regarding mental health issues. In this study, 248 police officers completed a 62-item online survey related to their attitudes toward seeking mental health services, mental health stigma, and perceptions of other officers' willingness to seek services. The results indicate that public stigma and self-stigma were negatively correlated with attitudes toward seeking psychological help. Self-stigma fully mediated the relationship between public stigma and attitudes toward seeking help, and the model explained 56% of the variance in attitude scores. The results also suggest that police officers tended to believe that their peers were less willing to seek mental health services for several common presenting issues than they actually were.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Stigma, Pluralistic Ignorance, and Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services Among Police Officers
- Creators
- Kery M. Karaffa - Oklahoma State UniversityJulie M. Koch - Oklahoma State University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Criminal justice and behavior, Vol.43(6), pp.759-777
- Publisher
- Sage
- DOI
- 10.1177/0093854815613103
- ISSN
- 0093-8548
- eISSN
- 1552-3594
- Number of pages
- 19
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 06/01/2016
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Quantitative Foundations
- Record Identifier
- 9984371100202771
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