Impact of Attitudes on the Relationship between Psychological Symptoms and Help Seeking Behavior in a Black and Non-Black International Sample

Internationally, members of the African diaspora, (Black people), report higher rates of untreated mental illness than peers of other races. Research has suggested that symptoms associated with poor mental health such as clinical depression and anxiety are associated with negative evaluations of help seeking behaviors such as contacting mental health professionals for care. The current study sought to examine the impact of attitudes toward seeking mental health care on the causal relationship between symptoms of depression, anxiety or stress as measured by the DASS-21 to help seeking behaviors reported by participants. This study further examined the impact of racial identity on this relationship to highlight any discrepancies specific to Black people. This research is intended to help guide and improve outreach, access, and clinical approaches to treating Black people with mental illness. A total of 500 participants were recruited for this study via online surveying software. Participants were divided into two groupings of 250 Black participants and 250 Non-Black participants (N=500) to complete the survey. A moderated mediation analysis was conducted to examine the mediating effects of attitudes towards professional help seeking on the relationship between psychological symptomology and help seeking behaviors, as well as to examine any moderating effects that could be highlighted by racial differences. There was a significant direct relationship between symptoms and help seeking behaviors found with a significant partial mediating effect of participant attitudes on the direct relationship (R2= 0.1521, p=<0.000). Race was not found to be a significant moderator of this mediation (CI95%: -0.001 to 0.004), though race did moderate the direct relationship from symptoms to help seeking behaviors (β= 0.016, SE= 0.0025, t= 6.375, p= < 0.000).