Methods: Participants included 1,876 Latina college students who participated in the Healthy Minds Study, a multisite web-based survey study of college student mental health. All participants were randomly selected from each institution that volunteered to be involved in the study. On average, Latinas were 21 years old, American citizens (94%), and from mid-level socioeconomic backgrounds (SES). The primary study outcomes were past year and frequency of past year use of counseling/therapy. Multivariate regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between service use and access (e.g., insurance coverage, SES, citizenship, knowledge of services), needs (e.g., symptoms of depression, anxiety, anorexia, suicidal ideation, substance use), and attitudes/beliefs (e.g., helpful of services, stigma, religiosity, discrimination, family support).
Results: Nearly half of the sample reported experiencing psychological and/or substance use problems, yet only 1 in 4 had received past-year mental health services. Regression analyses showed that perception of need exhibited the strongest effect size among all the factors examined with respect to any past-year service use (OR = 9.47, 95% CI = 6.92-13.76) and frequency of past-years service use (RRR = 10.62, 95% CI = 1.38-81.55). Other factors related to service use included knowing where to go for services, beliefs about the helpfulness of services, religiosity, and familial support.
Conclusions and Implications: This study revealed significant unmet need for mental health services among Latina college students, an at-risk and understudied population. Perceptions of need as well as attitudes/beliefs about services were more influential in service utilization than access-related factors (e.g., insurance, SES). These results suggest that culturally appropriate mental health literacy programs may help address the unmet need for services among Latina college students specifically, and may also be useful for other racial/ethnic minority students.
