Degree

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Self-stigma of mental illness is one of the most important factors that influence people’s help-seeking attitudes. A higher level of self-stigma is associated with less favorable attitudes toward help-seeking. Additionally, psychological inflexibility may also contribute to this process by increasing people’s tendency to internalize the negative stereotypes associated with mental illness, which contributes to higher self-stigma. The present study examined the relationships between self-stigma of mental illness, psychological inflexibility, and help-seeking attitudes across three groups: Bangladeshi students living in Bangladesh (Group 1), Bangladeshi students living in the United States (Group 2), and United States college students (Group 3). A total of 466 participants were included for the final analysis. Analyses were conducted differently for each group. Across all groups, moderate correlations were found between self-stigma and psychological inflexibility, and moderate-to-small correlations were found between self-stigma and help-seeking attitudes. However, only small correlations were found between psychological inflexibility and help-seeking attitudes in Groups 1 and 3, which were not significant in Group 2. The mediation analysis showed that psychological inflexibility did not mediate the relationship between self-stigma and help-seeking attitudes. These findings suggested that self-stigma was more directly associated with help-seeking attitudes rather than indirectly associated through psychological inflexibility. Exploratory analyses further showed that Bangladeshi students living in Bangladesh reported significantly higher levels of self-stigma and psychological inflexibility than those living in the U.S. Although Bangladeshi students living in the U.S. showed slightly more favorable help-seeking attitudes and higher levels of psychological flexibility than those living in Bangladesh, these differences were not statistically significant. Future research should explore other contextual factors, such as access to mental health services, mental health literacy, and social support, to better understand the group differences observed in this study.

Date

2-6-2026

DOI

https://proquest.com/docview/3347848872

First Committee Chair

David Perkins

First Committee Member

Emily Sandoz

Second Committee Member

Manyu Li

Third Committee Member

Mark LaCour

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