When the fear of discrimination is higher than the hope for support - The effect of hiring procedures on mental health help-seeking in young adults
(2024) PSYP01 20241Department of Psychology
- Abstract
- Research on mental health (MH) help-seeking behavior is still trying to understand
influencing factors that hinder individuals in obtaining professional help. This becomes particularly important as young adults show a high prevalence of mental illness (MI) but a low prevalence of seeking help. So far, MH stigma resulting from self-directed and public attitudes, emotions and behaviors has been considered as an important barrier to help-seeking. However, the stigma deriving from employers and the resulting discrimination against individuals with MI throughout hiring processes are widely uninvestigated. As young adults pose a specific group, with employment and financial independency being relevant life goals, this study aims to understand... (More) - Research on mental health (MH) help-seeking behavior is still trying to understand
influencing factors that hinder individuals in obtaining professional help. This becomes particularly important as young adults show a high prevalence of mental illness (MI) but a low prevalence of seeking help. So far, MH stigma resulting from self-directed and public attitudes, emotions and behaviors has been considered as an important barrier to help-seeking. However, the stigma deriving from employers and the resulting discrimination against individuals with MI throughout hiring processes are widely uninvestigated. As young adults pose a specific group, with employment and financial independency being relevant life goals, this study aims to understand whether stigmatizing hiring processes affect their help-seeking intentions in interaction with increasing symptoms of an MI. Participants are exposed to two
different scenarios with either MH stigmatizing or MH supporting hiring conditions and respond with their help-seeking intentions while considering serially worsening MH symptoms. Although the analyses did not find stigma-related changes in help-seeking, there is evidence for that participants perceive and worry about hiring discrimination. Also, stigma deriving from employers was found to relate to public and self-stigma. Apart from foundational insights into another type of stigma, this study shows that investigating help-seeking across different psychopathologies adds to existing research as it can measure symptom-dependent changes of help-seeking decisions. Implications for stigma-related theories are discussed along with suggestions for further research to support young and stigmatized individuals in their process of obtaining MH help and employment. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9161934
- author
- Krüger, Karen Janne LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- PSYP01 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Mental health stigma, Hiring discrimination, Emerging Adulthood, Help-seeking Intentions, Structural Stigma, Self-Stigma, Public Stigma, Mental health literacy
- language
- English
- id
- 9161934
- date added to LUP
- 2024-06-18 13:58:31
- date last changed
- 2024-06-18 13:58:31
@misc{9161934,
abstract = {{Research on mental health (MH) help-seeking behavior is still trying to understand
influencing factors that hinder individuals in obtaining professional help. This becomes particularly important as young adults show a high prevalence of mental illness (MI) but a low prevalence of seeking help. So far, MH stigma resulting from self-directed and public attitudes, emotions and behaviors has been considered as an important barrier to help-seeking. However, the stigma deriving from employers and the resulting discrimination against individuals with MI throughout hiring processes are widely uninvestigated. As young adults pose a specific group, with employment and financial independency being relevant life goals, this study aims to understand whether stigmatizing hiring processes affect their help-seeking intentions in interaction with increasing symptoms of an MI. Participants are exposed to two
different scenarios with either MH stigmatizing or MH supporting hiring conditions and respond with their help-seeking intentions while considering serially worsening MH symptoms. Although the analyses did not find stigma-related changes in help-seeking, there is evidence for that participants perceive and worry about hiring discrimination. Also, stigma deriving from employers was found to relate to public and self-stigma. Apart from foundational insights into another type of stigma, this study shows that investigating help-seeking across different psychopathologies adds to existing research as it can measure symptom-dependent changes of help-seeking decisions. Implications for stigma-related theories are discussed along with suggestions for further research to support young and stigmatized individuals in their process of obtaining MH help and employment.}},
author = {{Krüger, Karen Janne}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{When the fear of discrimination is higher than the hope for support - The effect of hiring procedures on mental health help-seeking in young adults}},
year = {{2024}},
}