An investigation of college student-athletes’ mental health stigma, help-seeking attitudes, depression, anxiety, and life stress scores using structural equation modeling
Saundra M. Tabet, Glenn W. Lambie, Nedeljko Golubovic
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the directional relationship between student-athletes’ (N = 621) degree of mental health stigma, help-seeking attitudes, and levels of depression, anxiety, and life stress. The results of the structural equation model (SEM) analyses identified that student-athletes’ amount of mental health stigma contributed to help-seeking attitudes (25.6% of the variance), but not levels of depression (.16% of the variance), anxiety (.09% of the variance), or life stress (.81% of the variance). Specifically, student-athletes’ mental health stigma shared a strong negative relationship with attitudes towards seeking psychological help (β = −.506, p < .001) and the mediation models identified that personal stigma mediates the relationship between public stigma and help-seeking attitudes. Implications purport the need to address the stigma of mental health at the societal level in order to mitigate personal stigma and promote a positive sport culture surrounding mental health and health help-seeking within athletes.