(PS6-D97) Predictors of Mental Health Help-seeking Intentions in Civilian Military Wives: The Moderating Roles of Race/ethnicity and Sexual Orientation

Introduction: Active duty military wives experience many stressors due to military culture, resulting in high rates of stress and mental disorders (Eaton et al., 2008). Yet, no studies utilize the theory of planned behavior (attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms) and mental health literacy (mental health knowledge) to predict mental health help-seeking intentions in active duty military wives. Moreover, despite growing racial, ethnic, and sexual orientation diversity, no research has examined if these relationships differ based on sexual orientation and race/ethnicity. Thus, it is critical to examine factors associated with seeking mental health treatment in this population.

Method: Participants completed an online survey that included a demographic questionnaire, the Inventory of Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Services (Mackenzie et al., 2004), the Mental Health Literacy Measure (Jung et al., 2016), and the Mental Help-Seeking Intention Scale (Hammer & Spiker, 2018). The sample consisted of 147 military wives who were a majority White (76.2%), heterosexual (68.7%), employed (58.5%), and had attended at least some college (90.4%).

Results: In a multiple regression with the three theory of planned behavior predictors and mental health literacy, perceived behavioral control was the only significant predictor of mental health help-seeking intentions such that higher levels of perceived behavioral control were associated with stronger intentions (b = 0.19, p < .001). Additionally, in separate regressions examining moderators, race/ethnicity moderated the relationship between attitudes and intentions; simple effects revealed that for White but not racial/ethnic minoritized participants, more positive attitudes were associated with more help-seeking intentions (b = .04, p = 0.03). Further, sexual orientation was a moderator of mental health knowledge and intentions; simple effects showed that for sexually minoritized but not heterosexual participants, more mental health knowledge was associated with stronger help-seeking intentions (b = 0.22, p = 0.04).

Discussion: Findings indicate that in active duty military wives, greater perceived behavioral control significantly predicted more help-seeking intentions. Other associations, namely attitudes and knowledge were moderated by race/ethnicity and sexual orientation. Thus, there appear to be some aspects of the theory of planned behavior that may not extend to racial/ethnic and sexual minoritized military wives in the context of mental health help-seeking. Future research is needed to develop culturally specific measures to examine predictors of help-seeking unique to different groups of military wives and to examine how the results may be different with a sample of more diverse wives as the demographics of this sample and measures used may have impacted the results. Additionally, future research should be conducted when COVID-19 is not as prevalent as factors unique to the pandemic may have also influenced the findings.