Seeking help despite the stigma: Experiential avoidance as a moderated mediator

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Mental Health Research
• Stigma Studies

Background:

• Public stigma surrounding mental health help-seeking can be internalized as self-stigma.
• Self-stigma negatively impacts individuals' intentions to seek psychological help.
• Experiential avoidance, the tendency to evade distressing thoughts/emotions, may influence this relationship.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if experiential avoidance moderates the association between self-stigma and help-seeking intentions.
• To examine the moderation of experiential avoidance on the direct link between self-stigma and intentions.
• To test the moderated indirect effect of public stigma on intentions via self-stigma, influenced by experiential avoidance.

Main Methods:

• Conditional process modeling was employed.
• The study involved a university student sample (N = 235).
• Moderation analyses examined the interplay of stigma, avoidance, and intentions.

Main Results:

• The direct relationship between self-stigma and help-seeking intentions was weaker for individuals with low experiential avoidance.
• A moderated indirect effect was found: self-stigma's link to intentions weakened with low experiential avoidance.
• Self-stigma predicted intentions when avoidance served to evade negative emotions.

Conclusions:

• Experiential avoidance plays a significant role in the relationship between stigma and help-seeking intentions.
• Interventions targeting experiential avoidance, promoting emotional openness, may reduce self-stigma's impact.
• This approach offers a novel strategy to enhance psychological help-seeking without solely focusing on stigma reduction.