Newland University

ASSESSING THE MENTAL HEALTH LITERACY (MHL)

OF STUDENTS IN NEWLAND UNIVERSITY

JUDY, Margaret
OLIVER, Brent
AMAKER, Dianne
JONES, Pauline

Introduction

Mental health illnesses have been rampant throughout the years. As a product of

worsened political and economic conditions, it is bound to continue rising with millions of

people becoming more vulnerable by the day. In the US, nearly 1 in 5 adults or 52.9 million live

with mental illness. As the numbers rise, the stigma of mental illness becomes significant.

Because of lingering misinformation and the lack of knowledge about such conditions,

people with mental illness are prone to prejudice and discrimination from the public, institutions,

and even from one’s own thinking.

 One notable demographic with a high prevalence of developing mental illnesses are

university and college students. Balancing academic load with adult-like responsibilities is in

itself a serious challenge and also a source of stress. Because of this, various mental health

intervention programs are currently being employed in schools to help students understand

themselves better and effectively curb the rise of mental illnesses among students. Moreover, it

comes as an imperative for such a group to have a high mental health literacy (MHL) given that

knowledge of mental health disorders and help-seeking aids in acquiring an earlier diagnosis and

treament, effectively reducing the impact of any mental health condition.

The recently-installed Mental Health Department of Newland University has reported

that an increasing number of students are developing signs of anxiety disorders. In light of this,

the department has proposed to urgently implement a comprehensive mental health intervention

program, the first step of which is to assess the MHL of the student population.

The objective of this research is to measure the MHL of the students in Newland

University for the department to come up with an effective intervention program.

Review of Related Literature

MHL is as important as addressing the mental health conditions themselves. Recognition

of mental disorders, knowledge of where to seek information and help, and understanding that

these can be treated all help people face the issue earlier and prevent more serious impacts to the

particular health concern.

However, MHL in the US is low (Dunn et al., 2009) which poses as a problem to the

community since millions of people in the country have mental illnesses.

For university and college students, anxiety disorder is the most common mental illness

that can develop. According to a comparison study of the prevalence of anxiety disorders
between college students and their non-college-attending peers, the former was more likely to

develop such a disorder. Approximately 11.9% of college students suffer from anxiety disorders

(Blanco et al., 2008), which makes it all the more important for mental health intervention

programs to be implemented in schools.

Assessing MHL of students in schools is both important and necessary especially when

addressing the problem of MHL rests solely on intervention programs and not on the school

curriculum itself. Aside from helping the individuals who have existing mental health conditions,

mental health intervention programs also aid in increasing the awareness of the people in a

particular community. This would essentially help in promoting a safe and wholesome

environment for the students who have mental problems. Overall, it seeks to safeguard student

well-being and improve the effectivity of education (Fazel et al., 2014).

Meanwhile, MHL can be attributed to the backgrounds of individuals and the complexity

of the health care system in the country. Individuals are less likely to seek professional help for

mental problems because of high treatment rates and while there are existing health care plans

for mental health, the provisions in them are not fully understood by most people (Alegria et al.,

2012).

As a consequence, people with other racial backgrounds get discouraged in seeking

treatments for their mental health conditions (Alegria et al., 2012). However, in the case of

knowledge of the disorders, certain backgrounds have higher MHL. In one study where gender

difference was noted in MHL rates, women were higher than that of men (Hee Yun Lee et al.,

2020) and in another one, MHL was also seen as high among a community of gays (Wang et al.,

2014). These maybe attributed to the fact that these genders are frequently at the receiving end of

discrimination which makes knowledge of mental health disorders and the importance of seeking

professional help common among them. Moreover, a lot of support groups and help centers are

available too for these individuals which further increases their MHL.
 In evaluating MHL, several tests are available. However, one is notable for its simplicity

and effectiveness: the Mental Health Literacy Scale which was developed by O’Connor and

Casey in 2015. It is a tool that can provide an initial assessment of all attributes of MHL. A study

on the MHL of undergraduate Pharmacy students in Saudi Arabia used the MHLS and helped in

initially formulating their own mental health intervention program. The study noted a higher

MHL among female students (mean=113) than male students (mean=109) which supplements

the research of Hee Yun Lee et al.

Although the MHLS is effective, O’Connor and Casey still recommended using the scale

along with other MHL tools to achieve both comprehensive and specific results needed in the

creation of a sound policy, in this case, an intervention program.

Limitations

This research only assessed the general knowledge of the Newland University student

population regarding mental health. The results of this reseach were used only to determine the

first parts of the mental health intervention program the university envisions to create and not the

whole program per se. Should other schools seek to draft their own intervention programs, they

must rely on the MHL of their own student demographic.

Methodology

The data was collected from a test conducted among the students of Newland University,

with a sample size of 492, achieving a confidence level of 98% and a margin of error of 5%.

Random sampling was employed across different year levels in the university aged 18 years and

above. Respondent demographic based on gender and race/ethnicity was noted.

 The test was conducted in the school gym in batches of 123 students at different times in

one day. A moderator and two faculty members were in the vicinity to assist the students.

The measurement tool employed to assess the mental health knowledge of the

respondents was the Mental Health Literacy Scale (O’Connor & Casey, 2015). It is a multiple-

choice 35-item test on the awareness of help-seeking and the ability to recognize mental health

disorders.

The tool measures six attributes employing the Likert scale for each question, namely:

1. Ability to recognize disorders

2. Knowledge of risk factors and causes

3. Knowledge of self-treatment

4. Knowledge of professional help available

5. Knowledge of where to seek information

6. Attitudes that promote recognition or appropriate help-seeking behavior

The lowest score is 35, and the highest score is 160, which denotes a high mental health

literacy level.

Data

Table 1. Respondent demographic

Gender Race/ethnicity

Male Female LGBTQ+ Black White Hispanic Asian Others

187 183 122 112 196 87 76 21

Figure 1. Mean scores according to demographic

Table 2. Overall mean score according to attributes

Attributes No. of Mean Description
questions score (Likert)

Ability to recognize disorders 8 23 Likely

Knowledge of risk factors and causes 2 4 Unikely

Knowledge of self-treatment 2 2 Very unhelpful

Knowledge of professional help 3 10 Likely

available

Knowledge of where to seek 4 18 Strongly agree

information

Attitudes that promote recognition or 16 65 Agree/Probably

appropriate help-seeking behavior unwilling

Results
 Table 1 presents the demographic information of the respondents. In terms of gender,

most of the respondents were male. Meanwhile, in terms of ethnicity, most were White (196),

followed by Black (112).

Figure 1 shows the mean scores achieved per gender and racial group. In the first cluster

of columns, the LGBTQ+ demographic obtained the highest MHL score of 151, followed by the

female population with a score of 147 and lastly, the male population, 139. In the second cluster,

the scores were all in the 130-range, where the Asians obtained the highest MHL score of 139.

The racial group that garnered the lowest MHL score were the Blacks with 131.

Table 2 presents the overall mean score of the respondents according to attributes. The

respondents knew very well about where they could acquire information on topics related to

mental health (mean=18). They also displayed satisfactory knowledge on available professional

help (mean=10) and the attitudes that promote recognition and appropriate self-seeking behavior

(mean=65) and adequate ability to recognize disorders. Meanwhile, they were not so keen in

knowing the risk factors and causes of mental health illnesses (mean=4). They also displayed

very little knowledge at all in self-treatment (mean=2).

Discussion

The overall satisfactory MHL of the respondents maybe attributed to the fact that various

information on mental health are available online.

Youth today are perceived to be more aware of different issues than the older generations. It is

also possible that their MHL is high because mental illnesses are currently on the rise. They are

able to adequately recognize the signs of mental disorders which shows in the result of the

MHLS.
 In particular, the LGBTQ+ is one to have a relatively sufficient knowledge of mental

health. Because of the stigma they receive as being part of the rainbow community, mental

illnesses are common which encourage awareness on the part of every individual in the

community. Support groups are also proliferating, which motivates them to seek help and

discuss with fellow members of the community their situations and essentially, developing

further awareness. Women also have a relatively similar situation.

Meanwhile, although varied results are seen across different ethnicities, a particular

explanation for the low MHL for Blacks maybe attributed to the immense racial discrimination

they experience. For attribute nos. 3-6 in the MHLS, they had significantly low scores, which

means they would rather live and die with the mental health condition than ask for help from the

predominantly White health care institutions in the US.

Conclusion

MHL is important in curbing the rise of mental health illnesses among the people in the

US. Schools, in particular, must employ various assessments on the MHL rate of their own

students in order to craft a sound mental health program to promote the well-being of the

studentry.

Newland University has initially assessed that its student population has a relatively

satisfactory MHL but this does not mean that it will not implement a comprehensive mental

health program for its students. It only means that the challenge now is how to refine the

knowledge the students have to effectively foster a healthy university for everyone.

Works Cited

Alegria, M., Lin, J., Chen, N., Duan, N., Cook, B., & Meng, L. (2012). The Impact of Insurance
 Coverage in Diminishing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Behavioral Health Services.

Health Services Research, 47(3 Pt 2), 1322-1344. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-

6773.2012.01403.x

Blanco, C., Okuda, M., Wright, C., Hasin, D. S., Grant, B. F., Liu, M., & Olfson, M. (2008).

Mental Health of College Students and Their Non-college-attending Peers: Results from

the National Epidemiologic Study on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Archives of

general psychiatry, 65(12), 1429. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.65.12.1429

Fazel, M., Hoagwood, K., Stephan, S., & Ford, T. (2014). Mental health interventions in schools

1: Mental health interventions in schools in high-income countries. The Lancet.

Psychiatry, 1(5), 377. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(14)70312-8

Lee, H. Y., Hwang, J., Ball, J. G., Lee, J., Yu, Y., & Albright, D. L. (2020). Mental Health

Literacy

Affects Mental Health Attitude: Is There a Gender Difference? American Journal of

Health Behavior, 44(3), 282–291.doi:10.5993/ajhb.44.3.1

O’Connor, M., & Casey, L. (2015). The Mental Health Literacy Scale (MHLS): A new

scale-based measure of mental health literacy. Psychiatry Research, 229(1-2), 511-516.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.05.064

Wang, J., Häusermann, M., & Weiss, M. G. (2014). Mental health literacy and the experience of

depression in a community sample of gay men. Journal of Affective Disorders, 155, 200–

207.doi:10.1016/j.jad.2013.11.001