Black Racial Ideologies and Help-Seeking

Black people underutilize mental health services compared to White people, and the current study sought to examine if racial identity might explain why. Specifically, this studyinvestigated how differences in racial ideology influenced help-seeking behavior in Blackcollege students. A total of 326 Black college students completed online measures assessing racial identity and help-seeking. Oppressed Minority ideology was linked to increased mental health help-seeking. When ideologies were modeled as latent classes, the Integrationist class (e.g., high Assimilation, high Humanist, high Oppressed Minority, low Nationalism) had greater help-seeking than the Nationalist class (i.e., high Nationalism, low in all other ideologies). Results suggest that Black students high in Nationalism and low in other ideologies may underutilize mental health services. Limitations and future directions are provided.