Stigma, pluralistic ignorance, and attitudes toward seeking mental health services among police officers

Due to stressors in the police profession, officers may be at risk for a variety of personal and mental health?related concerns. However, they have historically refrained from seeking professional mental health services. Several factors have been identified to explain their hesitance, including stig...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Karaffa, Kerry M. (Author)
Contributors: Koch, Julie M.
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2016
In: Criminal justice and behavior
Year: 2016, Volume: 43, Issue: 6, Pages: 759-777
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:Due to stressors in the police profession, officers may be at risk for a variety of personal and mental health?related concerns. However, they have historically refrained from seeking professional mental health services. Several factors have been identified to explain their hesitance, including stigma regarding mental health issues. In this study, 248 police officers completed a 62-item online survey related to their attitudes toward seeking mental health services, mental health stigma, and perceptions of other officers? willingness to seek services. The results indicate that public stigma and self-stigma were negatively correlated with attitudes toward seeking psychological help. Self-stigma fully mediated the relationship between public stigma and attitudes toward seeking help, and the model explained 56% of the variance in attitude scores. The results also suggest that police officers tended to believe that their peers were less willing to seek mental health services for several common presenting issues than they actually were.
ISSN:1552-3594
DOI:10.1177/0093854815613103