Ubuntu Collectivism and Depressive Symptom Disclosure in South African University Students: A Randomized Vignette Experiment on Social-Desirability and Help-Seeking Trade-offs

Ubuntu collectivism, the Southern African ethical orientation that grounds personhood in relational interdependence, is widely invoked to explain both the resilience and the treatment gap in South African student mental health. A 2 (Ubuntu prime vs. neutral prime) × 2 (symptom severity: moderate vs. severe) between-subjects design was administered to 412 undergraduate students across two universities. Disclosure willingness was measured on a validated three-item scale; social desirability and help-seeking expectations were measured as mediators. Results indicated that the Ubuntu prime reduced disclosure willingness for moderate symptoms (b = −0.41, SE = 0.12, p <.001) but not for severe symptoms, and that this effect was partially mediated by heightened concern about burdening the family collective. Help-seeking expectations did not differ by condition. The findings suggest that Ubuntu collectivism operates as a double-edged normative resource: it sustains collective coping while raising the perceived social cost of individual symptom disclosure. Implications for culturally adapted mental health screening and peer-support design are discussed.