The association between stigmatizing attitudes towards depression and help seeking attitudes in college students

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Objective Depression stigma has been considered a significant barrier to treatment and rehabilitation. This study aimed to understand the effects of gender, previous health care use, and symptomatology on depression stigma and analyze the impact of depression stigma on help-seeking attitudes. Methods A total of 969 students with a mean age of 18.87 (SD=1.49) were included in this study and completed the Depression Stigma Scale, the Attitude Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help, the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 questionnaire, and a socio-demographic questionnaire. We analyzed data using SPSS 24.0, with a 95% confidence interval. We performed an analysis of variance using One-Way ANOVA and analyzed possible interactions between gender and previous mental healthcare groups on depression stigma and help-seeking attitudes using a Two-Way ANOVA. T-tests were used to study differences between the gender, symptomatology groups, and previous access to mental healthcare. We also executed a hierarchical linear regression to evaluate the effects of individual characteristics on Depression Stigma and Help-seeking attitudes scores. Results Participants came from all University schools, and 64.6% were women. Stigma and help-seeking attitudes are positively affected by gender and previous access to mental healthcare services. Higher personal stigma weakened help-seeking attitudes. Depressive and anxiety symptoms influenced personal depression stigma and perceived stigma; however, we detected no direct symptomatology effect on help-seeking attitudes. Conclusions Personal depression stigma has an essential effect on help-seeking attitudes, and depressive and anxiety symptoms do not. The promotion of literacy may decrease personal depression stigma and increase professional help-seeking intentions.