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Navigating the help-seeking maze: Examining stigma, depression, and negative network orientation in college students'
Da Hwin Kim1, Linda G Castillo1
1Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University.
None:
College students face significant mental health challenges, yet many are reluctant to seek professional mental health help. This study examined the relative contributions of public stigma, self-stigma, depression, and negative network orientation to help-seeking attitudes among college students, controlling for demographic factors. Data were collected from 395 college students enrolled in U.S. postsecondary institutions. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that all examined factors significantly influenced help-seeking attitudes, with self-stigma emerging as the strongest predictor, followed by negative network orientation, public stigma, and depression. The full model accounted for 66.2% of the variance in help-seeking attitudes. Demographic factors explained 13.6% of the variance, with women, gender nonbinary/nonconforming, and bi/multiracial students reporting more positive attitudes toward seeking help in the final model. These findings underscore the complex interplay of factors shaping help-seeking attitudes and emphasize the importance of interventions targeting stigma and negative perceptions of social support networks to improve mental health service utilization among college students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
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