Date of Award

5-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Social Work

Department

School of Social Work

First Reader/Committee Chair

Li, Yawen

Abstract

Mental health is an important aspect of every individual’s life. However, regardless of its importance, mental health is a topic that does not get much recognition. It is often simply brushed under the rug and ignored. Consequently, individuals who have mental health diagnoses may or may not choose to seek the necessary assistance. This specifically seems to be the case among adolescents and young adults within various ethnic communities, which may be due to the stigma surrounding mental health in their communities. To illustrate, regardless of the high prevalence rate of mental health issues among the minority youth, many of them still do not utilize the appropriate mental health services. With all that being said, this study questions how stigma influences the utilization of mental health services among young adults’ within the Latino/Latinx, African American, and Asian American communities through the descriptive, secondary data analysis of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research 2021 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) data. The key hypothesis for this study was that a major factor on whether or not these young adults’ speak out and seek help in regards to their mental health is the stigma that their race and ethnicity face. Descriptive analysis was utilized to identify frequencies of variables, quantitative analysis techniques were used to analyze the additional CHIS data, and a multiple logistic regression was conducted in order to identify any significant relationships between the variables. The findings of this research study indicate that stigma associated with mental health may not be the only factor in determining young adults’ utilization of mental health services.

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