Explaining Black Canadians’ Intentions to Seek Mental Health Services

It has been found that Black Canadians have lower intentions to seek help from mental health professionals than other racial/ethnic groups in Canada. A growing number of studies have pointed to the theory of planned behaviour as a promising model for explaining psychological help-seeking intention across various racially/ethnically diverse populations, including an African American sample. However, the theory of planned behaviour does not account for several variables that are germane to psychological help-seeking for members of the Black community (e.g., public stigma, self-stigma, cultural mistrust, and afro-cultural anti-help-seeking beliefs). Therefore, the current study employs structural equation modeling to examine the extent to which the theory of planned behaviour explains psychological help-seeking intention among Black individuals across Canada (N = 362). This study also tests whether the addition of mental health stigma variables and culturally relevant variables predict help-seeking intentions among Black Canadians more effectively that the original theory of planned behaviour model. The findings from this study can help better inform mental health initiatives that are designed to address the issues of underutilization of psychological services and stigma among Black Canadians, and to help encourage Black Canadians to access mental health services.