The stigma of seeking help for mental health issues: mediating roles of support and coping and the moderating role of symptom profile Miki Talebi 1 , Kimberly Matheson 2,3 , Hymie Anisman 2 1 Department of Psychology, Carleton University 2 Department of Neuroscience, Carleton University 3 Department of Health Sciences, Carleton University Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Miki Talebi, Department of Psychology, Carleton University, B550 Loeb Building, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6 Canada. E-mail: mikitalebi@cmail.carleton.ca This research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) doi: 10.1111/jasp.12376 Abstract A key factor to the prevalence of mental illness might be the disinclination to seek help, perhaps owing to the stigma of mental illness. In two studies, the contribution of severity of depressive symptoms, social support, and unsupport, coping strategies, and salience of psychological versus biological features of depression in relation to perceived self- and other-stigma of help-seeking for mental health issues were exam- ined. Participants were first year students experiencing a transitional stressor, namely entry to university. Together, the findings point to the contribution of social support and unsupportive interactions, and coping methods to the prediction of perceived stigma of seeking help, but that the framing of mental illness can limit or strengthen these relations. Prevalence rates of mental illness continue to be on the rise, particularly among adolescents and young adults (Hunt & Eisenberg, 2010). Unfortunately, an underwhelmingly small proportion seek treatment (Andrews, Issakidis, & Carter, 2001). A key factor in the disinclination to seek help concerns the stigma of mental illness (Hinshaw & Stier, 2008), which is compounded by perceptions that help-seeking in itself is an admission that the individual is contending with prob- lems beyond his or her control (Biddle, Donovan, Sharp, & Gunnel, 2007). This concern might be particularly profound among young people, as they struggle to achieve a balance between continued dependence on others for support, and the need to assert themselves as autonomous and competent adults. In this regard, the transition from high school to uni- versity can be a highly stressful period, and students fre- quently experience greater strain and distress symptoms in their first semester of university compared to either preuni- versity levels (Bewick, Koutsopoulou, Miles, Slaa, & Barkham, 2010) or to young people who do not attend university (Stewart-Brown et al., 2000). Remarkably, despite the ready availability of on-campus resources, up to 70–85% of students who experience symptoms of depression and anxiety are reluctant to turn to these resources (Eisenberg, Golberstein, & Gollust, 2007; Zivin, Eisenberg, Gollust, & Golberstein, 2009). The present investigation assessed psychosocial factors that contribute to the perceived stigma of seeking help for mental health problems among students as they transition into university. It was proposed that severity of depressive symptoms might contribute to diminished perceptions of the availability or utility of social support. Because social support is a critical resource for effectively coping with stressors, it was suggested that depressed students would be more likely to adopt coping strategies that exacerbated rather than allevi- ated the perceived stigma of help-seeking. Finally, as stigma is more likely to be associated with psychological rather than physical illnesses, we evaluated the possibility that help- seeking stigma could be reduced by making the biological, rather than affective features of depression most salient, and whether as a result of this framing, coping strategies to con- tend with the depressive symptoms might be more effectively implemented. Depressive symptoms and help-seeking stigma For many mental health disorders, including depression, first onset of symptoms frequently emerges in late adolescence and early adulthood (Kessler et al., 2005). Transitional stres- sors, such as starting college or university, might be especially V C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2016, 00, pp. 00–00 Journal of Applied Social Psychology 2016, 00, pp. 00–00