Description
College students are at heightened risk for experiencing mental health problems. Understanding variables related to mental health literacy may assist efforts to help young adults accurately recognize mental health issues and seek proper psychological help when in need. The current study aimed to examine gender, acculturation to mainstream American culture, college major, and previous exposure to mental health problems in relationship to mental health literacy among college students. Undergraduate students from San Diego State University (n = 110; 77.3% female) participated by completing an online questionnaire. Students were self-identified as 45.5% Hispanic/Latino, 18.2% Caucasian/White, 15.5% Asian/Pacific Islander, 8.2% African American/Black, 6.4% Multiracial, 1.8% Middle Eastern, .9% Native American, and 3.6% missing racial/ethnic information. Mental health literacy was determined using the multicomponent measure of mental health literacy. Acculturation to mainstream American culture was assessed through the PAN Acculturation Scale. College major, prior exposure to mental health problems, and additional sociodemographic variables were also assessed. Results from individual simple regression analyses indicated that being female (B = 6.89, p = .032) and having previous exposure to mental health problems (B = 13.12, p = .003) were significantly associated with greater mental health literacy. However, acculturation, college major, and the exploratory interaction between gender and acculturation were unrelated to mental health literacy. A multiple regression analysis demonstrated that a model with all independent variables entered simultaneously significantly explained mental health literacy, ( F (4, 101) = 3.35, p = .013), and previous exposure to mental health problems remained significant (B = 11.43, p = .009) while controlling for gender, acculturation, and college major. A post-hoc simple regression analysis revealed that having more sources of exposure to mental health problems was associated with higher mental health literacy (B = 3.35, p = .001). The results of this study further expand the extant research on mental health literacy and suggest important factors to consider when implementing efforts to improve mental health literacy in the college student population. Increased mental health literacy may reduce concerning unmet need by facilitating accurate construction of mental health beliefs and supporting appropriate service usage.
