Stigma in Class: Mental Illness, Social Status, and Tokenism in Elite College Culture

Abstract

The majority of mental illness on college campuses remains untreated, and mental illness stigma is the most common reason for not seeking mental health treatment. Compared with affluent students, working-class students are at greater risk of mental illness, are less likely to seek treatment, and hold more stigmatized views toward people with mental illness. Research on college culture suggests that elite contexts may be associated with greater stigmatization of illness. This study asks how social status and college context together predict students’ mental health attitudes. A survey of Ivy and non-Ivy League undergraduates ( n = 757) found that lower status students’ perceptions of themselves as status minorities may be responsible for greater stigmatization of mental illness in elite contexts. Elite academic institutions bolster cultures of individualism and perfectionism, which encourage students to adopt stigmatizing views. In addition, these processes may be even more harmful to lower status students who are underrepresented on their elite college campuses. Results suggest that elite colleges need to evaluate the negative effects their culture and norms have on students’ mental health attitudes, and that increasing socioeconomic diversity may improve lower status students’ mental health attitudes.