Talking to Instructors about Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Investigating the Associations between College Students’ Willingness to Communicate about Mental Health, Perceptions of Social Support Availability, and the Risk of Disclosure

ABSTRACT

An online survey was administered to U.S. college students (N =  317) who self-identified as being diagnosed with a mental health condition and were enrolled in college classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings indicated that students’ perceptions of social support availability from their instructor and their perceived risk of disclosure significantly predicted students’ willingness to communicate with instructors about mental health. Further, students who reported that their instructors had shared mental health resources with them at some point in the semester had higher willingness to communicate about mental health with their instructors than students who had not received information about mental health resources. The implications of these findings on student-instructor communication about mental health are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Willingness to communicate
• mental health
• instructor supportiveness
• disclosure risk

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Participants were given the option to select more than one mental illness diagnosis