Variations in Endorsed and Perceived Mental Health Treatment Stigma Across U.S. Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

This study examines the association between six higher education institutional-level characteristics (institutional type, enrollment size, sector, housing, admissions selectivity, and graduation rate) and individual endorsed and perceived mental health treatment stigma scores among college students. We use nine years (2009-2017) of data from the Healthy Minds Study and our analysis sample includes 89,644 students at 105 unique institutions. We find a negative association between individual-level stigma scores and small enrollment institutions, private institutions, highly residential institutions, and institutions with the highest admissions selectivity and highest graduation rates. Moreover, these findings are generally similar across both individual measures of endorsed stigma and perceived stigma. Overall, our findings suggest that institutional environments where interactions are perhaps more frequent and personal (small enrollment institutions and highly residential institutions) are less likely to cultivate individual-level endorsements and perceptions of mental health treatment stigma. Our results have implications about higher education institutions’ ability to reduce stigma and increase mental health treatment-seeking behavior on campuses.