Stigma and Discrimination as Correlates of Mental Health Treatment Engagement Among Adults With Serious Mental Illness

Objective: The negative impacts of stigma on mental health treatment initiation are well established, but the relationship of stigma to proactive engagement in mental health treatment (e.g., actively working toward therapy goals) is largely unexamined. This study examined the relationship between mental health treatment engagement and stigma experiences, discrimination experiences, and internalized stigma among adults with serious mental illness. Age, race, gender, and education were tested as moderators of the relationships between stigma-related variables and treatment engagement. Method: Data were collected from 167 adults with serious mental illnesses who were receiving services at 5 psychosocial rehabilitation programs. Treatment engagement was assessed by participants' primary mental health care providers, using the Service Engagement Scale. The relationship between treatment engagement. stigma, and discrimination as well as potential demographic moderators were tested with Pearson's correlations and multiple linear regressions. Results: Treatment engagement was not correlated with experiences of stigma, experiences of discrimination, or application of stigmatizing beliefs to self. Gender, race, and age were not significant moderators but education was. Experiences of stigma were associated with greater treatment engagement in those with a higher level of education (p = .007), whereas application of stigma to one's self was associated with poorer treatment engagement in those with a higher level of education (p = .005). Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Among individuals with higher levels of education, efforts to prevent internalization of public stigma may be crucial to promote proactive mental health treatment. Replication studies are needed to confirm these findings.