The Professional Counselor | Volume 12, Issue 3 251 referrals). For example, Olson et al. (2016) found that college students who attended a Recognize & Refer workshop were significantly more likely to refer a peer to counseling when compared to students who did not attend the workshop. Similarly, Kalkbrenner, Lopez, and Gibbs (2020) found that increases in college students’ awareness of warning signs for mental distress were predictive of substantial increases in the odds of making peer-to-peer referrals to the counseling center. Peer-to-peer mental health support also has implications for improving college student mental health (Bryan & Arkowitz, 2015; Byrom, 2018; Caporale-Berkowitz, 2022). For example, Bryan and Arkowitz (2015) found that peer-run support programs for depression were associated with significant reductions in depressive symptoms. In addition, Byrom (2018) demonstrated that peer support interventions were associated with increases in college students’ well-being. The synthesized results of the studies cited in this section suggest that peer-to-peer mental health support has utility for promoting mental health among general samples of undergraduate college students. However, to the best of our knowledge, the literature is lacking research on peer-to-peer mental health support with STEM majors, a subgroup of college students with unique mental health needs (Daker et al., 2021; Lipson et al., 2016; Shapiro & Sax, 2011). The Present Study College counseling services are a valuable resource for students, as attendance in counseling is associated with increases in GPA and retention rates (Kivlighan et al., 2021; Lockard et al., 2019; Schwitzer et al., 2018). Considering STEM students’ unique vulnerability to mental health distress (Daker et al., 2021; Lipson et al., 2016; Shapiro & Sax, 2011) and their reticence to seek counseling (Kalkbrenner, James, & Pérez-Rojas, 2022), professional counselors who work in university settings need screening tools with validated scores for identifying why STEM students might avoid accessing counseling services. The RFSV Scale has potential to fill this gap in the measurement literature, as a number of recent psychometric studies (e.g., Kalkbrenner, Goodman-Scott, & Neukrug, 2020; Kalkbrenner & Neukrug, 2018) demonstrated support for the psychometric properties of scores on the RFSV Scale with non-college populations. However, the literature is lacking a screening tool for appraising barriers to counseling with validated scores among STEM students. Accordingly, a score validation study with STEM students is an important next step in this line of research, as the internal structure of instrumentation can vary notably between different samples (Mvududu & Sink, 2013). The literature is also lacking research on the potential of peer-to-peer mental support (e.g., students recognizing and referring a peer to counseling) among STEM students. This is another notable gap in the literature, as college students are more likely to discuss mental health concerns with a peer than with faculty or other university personnel (Wawrzynski et al., 2011; Woodhead et al., 2021). If STEM students’ scores on the RFSV Scale are validated, we will proceed to test the capacity of scores for predicting peer-to-peer referrals to the counseling center as well as examine demographic differences in STEM students’ RFSV scores. The findings of the present investigation have implications for campus-wide mental health screening, increasing peer-to-peer mental health support, and identifying subgroups of STEM students that might be particularly reticent to seek counseling. To this end, the following research questions (RQs) and hypotheses (Ha) guided the present investigation: RQ1: Is the internal structure of scores on the RFSV Scale confirmed with STEM students? Ha1: The dimensionality of the RFSV Scale will be confirmed with STEM students. RQ2: Are STEM students’ RFSV scores significant predictors of making at least one referral to the counseling center? Ha2: Higher RFSV scores will emerge as a statistically significant positive predictor of STEM students making one or more peer referrals to the counseling center. RQ3: Are there significant demographic differences in FSV barriers to counseling among STEM students? Ha3: Statistically significant demographic differences in STEM students’ RFSV scores will emerge.
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