Assessing health-related stereotype threats and mental healthcare experiences among a LGBT sample

Abstract

Stereotype threats have been documented in an academic and work setting and have been found to have a significant impact on an individual’s behavior as it could be a barrier in receiving healthcare services. This paper explores the impact of health-related stereotype threats and its influence within a LGBT sample with the use of an online survey to explore underlying and unconscious barriers within mental health services. A series of regressions were used to analyze and explore the potential predictability the health-related stereotype threats may have on the fear of communicating with a physician, delay in mental health services, and poor mental health outcomes. High reports of health-related stereotype threats significantly predicted high reports of fear of the physician which could indicate that many LGBT patients are afraid to communicate with their providers about their mental health due to stereotype threats (F (1,91) = 9.844, p <  .005). In addition, high reports of health-related stereotype threats slightly but significantly predicted reported delays in seeking mental health services (χ²(1) = 4.220, p <  .05). In addition, although there was no significance related to positive affect scores, health related stereotype threats significantly predicted self-reported poor mental health outcomes (F (1,90) = 4.545, p <  .05) and high rates of negative affect scores (i.e., anxiety, depression; F (1,89) = 4.933, p <  .05). Recommendations and future study will also be discussed.

Keywords:

• Discrimination
• health services
• mental health
• quality of healthcare
• stereotype threats

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the statistical support provided by Jeffery Swails, M.A. who served as a consultant on this manuscript.