Smith, Brandon Paul (2022-06). Military and Civilian College Male Mental Health Stigma, Disclosure, and Treatment Efficacy Beliefs. Doctoral Dissertation.
Thesis
Mental illness continues to be a significant national health burden. The degree to which this burden is experienced is influenced by culture and other societal influences. The mental health status and treatment of college attending men are often overlooked and contribute to this national burden. Both retired and active military male service members are particularly vulnerable to mental health conditions due to their service history (i.e. PTSD and Substance Use Disorder). Both college attending civilian and military men experience cultural influences that serve as barriers to seeking and utilizing mental health services (MHS). Stigma is a likely predictor for the effect that male and military culture have on the utilization of MHS. The effects of stigma are tied to multiple levels of identity; mental illness in general, male gender-role and masculinity scripts, and military culture and training. Efforts have been made on college campuses as well as within the military to de-stigmatize mental illness and its treatment. It is generally supported in the literature that the salience of masculinity-norms predicts utilization rates of MHS. A similar effect is found regarding military service history in a similar and overlapping manner explored in this study. It is hypothesized that there are group-level differences in the relationship between mental health stigma and MHS utilization between the military and civilian sample population. To test this hypothesis, a multigroup-invariance path analysis was conducted. The analysis fails to support invariance of the baseline model but finds non-invariance of path coefficients across groups with a smaller Chi-square contribution from the military population sample. Reasons for and implications of this difference are discussed. Limitations to this study and future directions for research are explored.
