What Do African American Youth With a Mental Illness Think About Help-Seeking and Psychiatric Medication? Origins of Stigmatizing Attitudes

Stigma greatly impacts African Americans' underutilization of mental health treatment. Stigmatizing attitudes are attributed to racial mistrust and familial, religious, and cultural beliefs. However, most research on influences of these attitudes has been conducted with adults. Origins among adolescents may be unique because they have different competing influences relative to development. Identifying these influences is crucial to promoting utilization of psychiatric services as well as positive mental health outcomes among youth. The present article applies qualitative methods to explore the origin of stigmatizing attitudes among African American adolescents with psychiatric disorders. Adolescents reported similar origins of stigmatizing attitudes toward mental illness as adults, and also identified peer perceptions and media messages as influences. The findings promote the need to develop family psychoeducation programs that account for familial, racial, cultural, community, and religious influences.