Stigma, Negative Attitudes About Treatment, and Utilization of Mental Health Care Among Soldiers

TLDR

Stigma and organizational barriers are known to limit the proportion of soldiers with psychological problems who seek professional help. The study examines how negative attitudes toward treatment affect treatment seeking among soldiers deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq. Survey data were collected from soldiers with psychological problems, assessing stigma, organizational barriers, negative attitudes toward treatment, and treatment‑seeking behavior. Negative attitudes toward treatment were found to inversely predict treatment seeking, underscoring the need for policies to reduce such attitudes.

Abstract

Stigma and organizational barriers have been identified as factors for why a small proportion of soldiers with psychological problems seek professional help. In this article, we examine the impact of negative attitudes toward treatment on treatment seeking among soldiers previously deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq (n = 2,623). We asked soldiers with psychological problems questions about stigma, organizational barriers, negative attitudes toward treatment, and whether they sought treatment for their psychological problems. We found that negative attitudes about treatment inversely predicted treatment seeking. These results provide a more comprehensive examination of reasons that soldiers do not seek needed treatment and highlight the need for policy aimed at reducing negative attitudes toward mental health treatment.