Parental depression literacy may be a key moderating factor between depression and adolescent use of mental healthcare services. To improve access to mental healthcare, barriers such as stigma, lack of knowledge among individuals who are depressed and their families, and lack of mental health resources should be addressed. Therefore, understanding these parental factors is crucial to develop educational programs that effectively promote adolescent use of healthcare services for depression, but there is the lack of these studies.
Methods:
The study employed secondary data analysis to examine gender differences of depression literacy, depression stigma, and attitude toward use of mental healthcare services in Korean American parents.
Results:
Of 143 survey respondents, 36 were fathers (25.2%) and 107 were mothers (74.8%). We found gender differences in the mediation effect of depression literacy on the relationships between stigma subtypes and attitudes toward mental healthcare service use. In regression analysis with moderation effect by depression literacy on relationship between stigma subtype and attitudes, among fathers (n = 36), there was no statistically significant moderation effect, but mothers (n = 107) indicated statistically significant moderation effect of depression literacy on the relationship between total stigma and attitudes (B = -.08, p < .05). In addition, age was negatively associated with attitude toward mental healthcare service use (B = -.25, SE = .11, p < .05). In regression analysis, no stigma subtypes were found to be significant predictors of fathers’ attitudes toward use of mental healthcare services. These results indicate that a similar study needs to be conducted according to gender in order to avoid overgeneralizing the results for depression literacy and help-seeking behaviors.
Conclusion:
Gender differences on depression literacy, stigma, and attitude toward mental healthcare services. Variables other than stigma subtypes should be examined in fathers to identify facilitators and barriers to use of mental healthcare services. Moreover, interventions other than educational programs should be considered to promote fathers’ help-seeking behaviors for their children’s depression.