Authors:

August Stine-Woods

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About Paper:

Black Americans face similar mental health issues as White Americans but receive lower rates of mental health care compared to other ethnic groups. Understanding factors that contribute to this treatment gap are critical to improving personal well-being among Black Americans. Family and peer attitudes can shape one's beliefs about mental health and whether one will seek help. Examining family and peer attitudes expressed to Black men can help increase help-seeking rates, ultimately improving their overall well-being. In this study, we examined Black men's perceptions of family members' and peers' attitudes about psychological help-seeking when they were growing up. One hundred and forty- six Black men provided written responses to the question: "What were the attitudes of family members and peers regarding seeking psychological help when you were growing up?" Through content coding, we created a codebook to represent the themes within the data. Through three rounds of coding, interrater reliability analyses, and codebook revisions, we finalized twenty-one codes that reflected help-seeking messages. Emerging higher-order themes include barrier, ambiguous, positive, cultural, and conditional messages about help-seeking. For example, barrier messages suggested attitudes that either viewed the person seeking help negatively or viewed help-seeking itself negatively. Positive messages suggested supportive attitudes, including those actively encouraging help-seeking. Cultural messages recommended cultural alternatives to mental healthcare, including religion and self-reliance. Conditional messages included several themes about seeking help in only limited situations. Ambiguous messages left participants unclear about their family and peers' views on mental health. This study addresses gaps in the literature to better understand how family and peers may influence the way Black men view and seek psychological help.

Source:

Auburn University / College of Education / 2025

Topics:

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Co-authors:

August Stine-Woods