Hazardous Attitudes: A study identifying mental healthcare avoidance behaviors and attitudes in a collegiate aviation student population

Abstract

Verbatim from Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons. Not paraphrased, not summarized.

Mental health is a topic that has rapidly gained traction in the aerospace education community, specifically in collegiate aviation programs. Previous research has shown that college students are a population that is prone to mental health issues that can adversely affect their academic success and quality of life (Jennings et al., 2017). College students choosing to study aerospace have a unique set of stressors in addition to anxiety associated with the college experience. The current research seeks to identify perceived barriers to mental health service utilization by the collegiate aviation student population. This study seeks to uncover students’ perceptions that result in mental health service avoidance or utilization by this unique population. By identifying these commonly perceived barriers, the intent is to provide helpful information to aviation programs to help students better understand the mental health services available. The planned methodology includes surveys such as the Inventory of Attitudes toward Seeking Mental Health Services, developed by Mackenzie et al. in 2006 (Mackenzie et al., 2006). Another proposed survey instrument is the Perceived Stigma and Self-Stigma of Seeking Help Scale developed by Vogel et al. in 2006 (Vogel et al., 2006). These surveys were chosen because they have been validated in college and military populations and are applicable to the research agenda for this project (Eisenberg et al., 2007). A further goal of this study is to expand the research to other universities across the country.

Authors

• Waters, Harley L Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Mosey, Paul Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• McDonald, Collin Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Keywords

• Healthcare Avoidance
• Mental Healthcare Treatment
• Mental Health in Aerospace Students
• Aviation Mental Health
• Other Psychology