| This study explored the association of higher education and utilizing psychological services. Higher education was measured by three college related experience variables: exposure to those with mental illness, accessible psychological services, and academic learning experiences about mental illness. This study also expanded previous research by exploring ethnicity, gender, and current mental health status. Participants included 156 current Pace University undergraduate students (87 female and 69 male, mean age of 19.71) who anonymously and voluntarily completed surveys. Surveys included: Demographics and College-Experience and Psychological Services Questionnaire (Rosenthal, 2007) to assess demographic information and measure the college-related variables and the Mental Health Inventory-5 (Ware et al., 1994) and the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983) to assess current mental status. Variables positively associated with psychological service usage included: having a close relationship with someone who has mental illness or received psychological services ( p < .001), knowledge of the campus college counseling center's location (p = .036), and academic experiences and mental health outreach about psychology (p = .001). Those participants reporting previous psychological service usage demonstrated higher psychological symptom severity and stress levels vs. those who reported not previously utilizing psychological services. No significant gender or ethnicity differences were observed. Implications include suggestions for colleges to focus on the variables identified as positively associated with psychological service usage in order to increase psychological service usage among college students. |
