An Exploratory Study of Attitudes Toward Psychological Help Seeking Among African American Men

Abstract

Disparities in health care are a significant social problem affecting millions of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. To better understand these disparities, the current study explored the relationship between self- and social stigma, John Henryism, hardiness, and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help in a community sample of 120 Black men ( Mage = 42.72 years, SD = 13.26). Additionally, participants completed measures of potential covariates, which included occupation, highest education, and income. Results suggest that self-stigma is a major deterrent to seeking help for psychological issues. This relationship is moderated by both age and occupation. Hardiness negatively influenced self-stigma for help seeking and had a positive indirect influence on attitudes toward help seeking. Findings support previous research on help-seeking attitudes among African American men and suggest that personal characteristics, such as age, occupation, and coping style can influence help-seeking behaviors.