The Professional Counselor | Volume 12, Issue 3 257 with a high-pressure academic environment might make male STEM students especially reluctant to seek counseling. Men are also less likely than women to recognize and seek treatment for mental health issues (Kalkbrenner & Neukrug 2018; Neukrug et al., 2013). Thus, it is also possible that male STEM students are less likely to recognize mental distress as a potentially serious health issue, which contributes to them placing less value on the benefits of counseling when compared to their female counterparts. Future research is needed to test these possible explanations for this finding. Implications The findings of this study have a number of implications for professional counselors who work in college settings. The CFA and HCFA results extend the psychometric properties of the RFSV Scale to STEM students (RQ1), which is an important contribution to the measurement literature, as the scale offers professional counselors a brief screening tool that usually takes 10 minutes or less to complete. The RFSV Scale can be administered at the systemic level (e.g., all STEM students at a university). Tests of internal structure reveal support for a three-dimensional RFSV model (see Figure 1, Model 1) as well as a higher-order model (see Figure 1, Model 3) with STEM students. Accordingly, professional counselors can administer and score one or both RFSV models depending on their mental health screening goals. The Global Barriers to Counseling scale might have utility for college counselors who are aiming to gather baseline information about STEM students’ general reticence to seek counseling. The three-dimensional model can provide more specific information (Fit, Stigma, and/or Value) about the reasons why STEM students on a particular campus are reluctant to seek counseling. Our results reveal that increases in STEM students’ scores on the Value subscale were associated with a noteworthy increase in the odds of making a peer-to-peer referral to the counseling center. This finding coupled with STEM students’ vulnerability to mental distress (Daker et al., 2021; Kalkbrenner, James, & Pérez-Rojas, 2022; Lipson et al., 2016; Shapiro & Sax, 2011) suggests that peer-to-peer referrals to mental health support services might be more important than ever before in connecting STEM students in mental distress to support services. Professional counselors who work in college settings can administer the RFSV Scale to STEM students and use the results as one method of informing the content of peer-to-peer mental health support initiatives. If, for example, STEM students on a particular campus score higher on the Value subscale (higher scores denote less value toward counseling), there might be utility in including information about the many benefits of counseling in peer-to-peer outreach initiatives for STEM students. Specifically, it might be beneficial to discuss both the academic and personal benefits associated with attending counseling. For groups of STEM students who score higher on the Stigma scale, college counselors might take a strengthsbased perspective by discussing how attending counseling takes courage and strength. College counselors and student affairs officials can reach STEM students by partnering with STEM faculty and administrators to attend STEM orientations and classes that are held in large lecture halls. College counselors may build relationships with department heads and program directors of STEM programs through sharing empirical evidence on STEM students’ unique mental health needs and their reticence to access mental health support services (Kalkbrenner, James, & Pérez-Rojas, 2022; Lipson et al., 2016; Shapiro & Sax, 2011). College counselors might also discuss how increases in STEM students’ mental health is associated with greater retention and academic success, which are key values in STEM programs (Daker et al., 2021; Lockard et al., 2019; Meaders et al., 2020; Muenks et al., 2020). As buy-in from STEM department heads and program directors increases, there might be utility in professional counselors regularly making presentations and facilitating discussions about mental health and the benefits of attending counseling during new STEM student orientations. The content of these presentations can be based on the extant literature regarding the socio-personal factors that can
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