Barriers to seeking counseling among US military service members

Abstract

A stigma toward accessing mental health support services exists in military culture. One of the next steps in this line of research is gaining a better understanding of the barriers or reasons behind why service members can be reluctant to seek counseling. We recruited a national sample (N = 516) of service members to test the dimensionality of scores on the Revised Fit, Stigma, and Value (RFSV) Scale for measuring barriers to seeking counseling. Results demonstrated that the meaning of RFSV scores was invariant by help-seeking history (past attendance in counseling) and by mental health diagnosis. After establishing adequate construct validity evidence of scores, we found that the Value barrier was a significant predictor of one or more peer-to-peer referrals to counseling among service members. Additionally, demographic differences in the Value and Stigma barriers emerged by help-seeking history and active duty status, respectively.