TPC Journal-Vol 10- Issue 2-FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 10, Issue 2 227 variable as we examined its direct effect on attitudes toward help seeking, drug use, and alcohol use. A total of 5,000 bias-corrected bootstrapped samples were created (Fritz & MacKinnon, 2007) to examine the indirect effect of self-stigma of mental illness and self-stigma of help seeking on drug use and alcohol use, with attitudes toward help seeking as the mediator. Path Analysis The model (see Figure 1) produced excellent fit: χ 2 (6, N = 406) = 6.85, p = .34; χ 2 / df = 1.14; CFI = .99; RMSEA = .02; SRMSR = .01, Bollen-Stine bootstrap, p = .21. Self-stigma of mental illness did not have a direct effect on attitudes toward help seeking ( β = .07, SE = .03, p > .05) whereas self-stigma of help seeking did have a negative direct effect on attitudes toward help seeking ( β = -.66, SE = .04, p < .001). Attitudes toward help seeking had a negative direct effect on both drug use ( β = -.15, SE = .02, p < .01) and alcohol use ( β = -.13, SE = .06, p < .01). The control variable of age had a negative direct effect on drug use ( β = -.27, SE = .00, p < .001) and alcohol use ( β = -.25, SE = .00, p < .001) but not attitudes toward help seeking ( β = .04, SE = .00, p > .05). The residuals of self-stigma of mental illness and self-stigma of help seeking had a positive correlation ( r = .54, SE = .04, p < .001) along with drug and alcohol use ( r = .64, SE = .01, p < .001). These findings indicated that higher self-stigma of help seeking was associated with a more negative attitude toward help seeking, and more positive attitudes toward help seeking were associated with lower drug and alcohol use. It is also important to note that the effect sizes in the model ranged from small to large (Sink & Stroh, 2006). Figure 1 Path Model With Age as a Control Variable The mediated path analysis results indicated that self-stigma of mental illness did not have an indirect effect on drug use ( β = -.01, SE = .05, p = .14, 95% BC [-.03, .00]) nor alcohol use ( β = -.01, SE = .01, p = .14, 95% BC [.-03, .00]) through attitudes toward help seeking. The mediated path analysis results also indicated that self-stigma of help seeking had an indirect effect on drug use ( β = .10, SE = .03, p < .001, 95% BC [.05, .15]) and alcohol use ( β = .08, SE = .03, p < .001, 95% BC [.03, .14]) through attitudes toward help seeking.