Differences in Stigma and Attitudes Toward Counseling Between College Student-Athletes and Nonathletes

ABSTRACT

Researchers have inconsistently found differences between student-athletes and nonathletes regarding levels of stigma and attitudes toward counseling. One limitation of previous comparison studies is that they do not control for factors known to influence attitudes and stigma, such as gender and previous treatment history. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine differences in stigma and attitudes toward counseling between a sample of student-athletes and nonathletes while controlling for these variables. In this brief report (N = 902), we used multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) to analyze differences between the groups. After controlling for gender and previous therapy experience, there were no differences between the groups on stigma or attitudes. The results of this study have implications for future outreach and intervention with student-athlete populations.

KEYWORDS:

• Public stigma
• self-stigma
• help-seeking
• mental health
• treatment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.