This research examined the personal attitudes, mistrust, and stigma of people of color regarding mental health services and their influence on the utilization of these services.
The study mentions conceptualized terms “attitude”, “mental health”, “counseling”, “stigma”, “mental health services”, “mistrust”, “disparities”, “help-seeking behavior”, and “intention to seek counseling” (Fripp & Carlson, 2017, p. 85).
According to Bryman (2016), quantitative research utilizes mathematical methods to investigate phenomena presented in numerical form. This study is quantitative as the authors measure the main variables using survey instruments and analyze them through statistical means.
This study is inductive because it tested hypotheses based on existing research data and did not introduce new theoretical constructs.
The unit of analysis, in this case, was a community of people of color. In the study, 30% of the participants were Latinos, and 70% were African Americans.
The study involved measurements of three scales: The Attitude Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help, The Intentions to Seek Counseling Inventory, and The Self-Stigma of Seeking Help Scale (Fripp & Carlson, 2017). Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess the reliability of all three scales.
Researchers conducted sampling through the distribution of surveys to private practices and social service-oriented agencies. The researchers also had the opportunity to have a face-to-face conversation with potential participants through partnerships with local agency directors. This procedure combines passive and active methods and is appropriate.
Research Design
Primary data were collected using three survey instruments representing variables of attitude, help-seeking behavior, and stigma. The authors also collected preliminary demographic information about participants.
The limitations were that the researchers collected data only from a group of Latinos and African Americans living in rural and urban communities in the southeastern region of the United States who are already involved in mental health services. Accordingly, there is only a limited ability to generalize the results to the entire population of people of color.
The researchers noted these limitations, but due to methodological reasons and the design economy, they did not minimize their negative effects.
According to Babbie (2017), the application of several mathematical methods is typical for quantitative research. The data were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation and linear regression statistical methods.
The authors’ first hypothesis was confirmed, and the attitudes towards seeking help proved to be a unique predictor positively correlated with participation in counseling services. The second hypothesis was also confirmed, and the attitudes towards seeking help were negatively correlated with stigma.
Data Analysis and Report Writing
In-depth interviews could complement quantitative data and shed light on how participants describe their attitudes towards seeking help and specific stigma in detail.
It bears mentioning that this article is free of any ethical problems. Moreover, the authors received approval from the university institutional review board.
The article’s technical report writing is at a high level and consistently and clearly reflects all stages of research. Probably in some parts of the text, the use of paragraph divisions and parenthetical expressions would improve the text flow.
Conclusion
The previous article was a review of empirical studies on the impact of misconceptions and stigma of people of color on their underutilization of mental health services. It consisted of a theoretical analysis of the major relevant issues and problems and summarized the results of these articles, compiling and comparing their main conclusions. This article explores the same problem but is an original empirical study with a quantitative methodology. Accordingly, it does not aim at analyzing and processing existing data, but at identifying new ones. It should also be noted that in the previous article, most of the text was dedicated to theoretical description, and in this one, it presents methodology and results.
References
Babbie, E. (2017). The basics of social research. (7th ed.). Cengage.
Bryman, A. (2016). Social research methods. Oxford University Press.
Fripp, J. A., & Carlson, R. G. (2017). Exploring the influence of attitude and stigma on participation of African American and Latino populations in mental health services. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 45(2), 80-94.