Date Approved

2024

Degree Type

Open Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department or School

Psychology

Committee Member

Stephen Jefferson, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Heather Janisse, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Eamonn Arble, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Danielle Busby, Ph.D.

Abstract

Background: African Americans, apprehension toward utilizing mental health services (MHS) has a long history in the United States. The low rates of utilizing MHS can result in detrimental health consequences, both mental and physical, despite there being a developing literature base on how evidence-based treatments are effective in therapy with African Americans.

Objective: There is expansive literature on several factors (e.g., stigma, cultural mistrust) that contribute to African Americans’ hesitancy concerning seeking MHS. The current study aimed to add to this literature base. Specifically, this study sought to acknowledge both African American college students’ choices to use alternative coping strategies (i.e., resilience and Africultural-based coping) and explore if actively utilizing those strategies might predict feelings of apprehension toward utilizing MHS, despite the need for them.

Methods: The current study is a secondary data analysis of the responses of 360 African American college students. The Hayes’s PROCESS 3.5 macro for SPSS 27 was used to test the simple mediation models explored in this study.

Results: As hypothesized, resilience mediated the relationship between both Africultural coping strategies (i.e., collective- and spiritual-centered coping) and students’ help-seeking propensity endorsement. However, resilience did not mediate the relationship between students’ psychological openness and their help-seeking propensity.

Conclusion: Per the findings gleaned from this study, it appears that for many African American college students, the use of Africultural coping (an external coping strategy) predicted higher levels of resilience (internal coping strategy), and the increased endorsement of resilience tended to increase participants’ willingness to seek MHS. The findings from this study have implications for relevant professional stakeholders (e.g., researchers, mental health professionals, teachers) to inform ways to advance future research related to this topic and refine current health policies and clinical teachings/practice used to promote help-seeking and the care of African American college students

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