The Influence of Demographic, Cultural, and Environmental Factors on the Perceptions of African American College Students toward Mental Illness and Counselin

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of African American college students toward mental illness and counseling. More specifically, this research was concerned with the separate and combined effect of the variables gender, levels of cultural mistrust, and levels of poverty's impact on the perceptions of African American college students toward mental illness and counseling.;A purposive study design was used to obtain a sample of one hundred participants. A Three way ANOVA/factorial design was utilized to examine the influence of gender, cultural mistrust, and environmental factors on the perceptions of African Americans toward mental illness. Four hypotheses were tested. The Cultural Mistrust scale, Inventory of Attitudes toward seeking Mental Health services, and a demographic questionnaire was used to obtain data for this study.