Collaborative Research: Research: Stigma of mental health conditions in engineering and its relationship with help-seeking attitudes of undergraduates and early professionals

The last decade has seen a rise in the mental health needs of college students, with an increasing prevalence of Mental Health Conditions (MHCs) such as depression, panic disorders, and generalized anxiety among many others. Stigma, a strong feeling of disapproval, of MHCs is a society-wide issue that tends to conflict with help-seeking attitudes of those having MHCs.

Engineering is known as a demanding field, where a culture of high stress and endurance is often promoted, with specific challenges to socialization, especially for members of marginalized groups. These factors tend to be linked to the onset and persistence of MHCs. Nevertheless, it is known that while engineering students do not have a higher prevalence of MHCs, those that have them are less prone to seek help than those in other professional areas.

This project will explore elements of the engineering culture that may reinforce stigmatized views of MHCs, therefore limiting the ability of students and early professionals to seek help when they need it. This study will explore the experiences of students and early professionals to understand elements of the engineering culture that influence their internalized stigma, interest to learn about MHCs, and ability to help others.

The project team will pay attention to students' interactions with other actors such as faculty and administrators to explore how the beliefs about MHCs are perpetuated in engineering education spaces. This study has the potential to bring valuable insights into professional cultures and how they interact with the prevalence and management of MHCs, such as key dynamics, contexts, and interactions that might promote negative views of MHCs.

The goal of this project is to identify elements of engineering culture that influence the stigma of MHCs and consequently affect the help-seeking attitudes of students and early professionals. This will be achieved through a three-year longitudinal sequential mixed methods study. Each year the relationship between the stigma of MHCs and help-seeking attitudes will be measured quantitatively through a survey with established instruments.

The results of the first-year survey will be analyzed under the principles of maximum variability to inform our longitudinal multi-case study that will use thematic and narrative analyses. The longitudinal quantitative analysis will examine the evolution of the considered relationships through the years of the participants’ engineering training and transition to professional life, and how they are moderated by their characteristics, perceptions of engineering culture, engineering identity, and sense of belonging.

This longitudinal approach will explore the important transition point where engineering students leave academic spaces to engage in their first professional experiences and its impact on their mental well being. The research design will also enable the study of how the outlook of students without MHCs evolves through time. Since MHCs can develop at any point in life and many elements of college life, including those specific to engineering training, have been linked to poor mental health outcomes, the result of this project have the potential to identify elements from learning and practicing engineering that could contribute to the onset of MHCs.

Project results will contribute to advancing equity and inclusion in engineering through the comprehensive description of the challenges experienced by students and early professionals with MHCs. Since engineering students and professionals with other marginalized identities in engineering are more likely to experience MHCs, project results will have the potential to illustrate the specific challenges navigated by such groups.

A partnership with the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) will enable a national reach of audiences in and out universities that will be supported through some of their established initiatives.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.