Attitudes of Mexican-Americans toward seeking professional psychological help
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Abstract
Reviewed literature consistently reports a high attrition rate and underutilization of mental health services by Mexican-Americans. Research has addressed this issue by considering both the methodology of services rendered to the Mexican-American, as well as the attitude held by and about Mexican-Americans. This study focused on (1) the attitude Mexican-Americans have toward tolerance of stigma associated with receiving psychological help and (2) attitude toward interpersonal openness. It was hypothesized that Mexican-Americans would score significantly lower than Anglos on both stigma tolerance and interpersonal openness factors on the Attitude Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale. Significant differences were found for both ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Mexican-Americans did score significantly lower than Anglos. In addition, it was hypothesized that subjects on probation for misdemeanor driving while intoxicated offenses would differ significantly on stigma tolerance and interpersonal openness, depending on their compliance or noncompliance with the terms and conditions of their probation. No significant differences were found for ethnicity between compliers and noncompliers. Overall, compliers did not differ from noncompliers in terms of attitude toward seeking mental health services. Implications for further research were discussed.