Persuasion and Message Design, Help Seeking for Mental Health Among Latinx College Students (RPA Pilot / Seed Project)

"Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, experts had declared a mental health crisis in America, citing sharp increases in anxiety and depression, particularly among members of Generation Z (Gen Z). The trends, exacerbated by the pandemic, also are coupled with stubbornly low rates of help seeking for mental health.
Recent studies have explored theoretically based communication strategies to encourage help seeking among current Gen Z college students; however, these studies have primarily focused on the general student population, rather than on diverse communities. This is problematic because strategic communication literature indicates attitudes, especially health-related attitudes, are often culturally based, signaling a need for messages reflective of different experiences and perspectives. The current investigation narrows its focus to mental health help-seeking attitudes among Latinx college students. It leverages existing focus group data
from this population that explored attitudes, motivators and barriers related to mental health help seeking. This investigation extends these efforts by developing and evaluating a series of messages that aim to persuade Latinx students to seek help. These messages would be rooted in inoculation theory, a well-established theory of persuasion. Further, the project would evaluate various message source characteristics (photography, names of sources, and language used in message) that aim to respond to themes that were voiced in the focus groups. The ultimate goal is to determine how these various source characteristics can be leveraged in
an inoculation message to elicit positive attitudes and intentions toward help seeking. These data could provide a foundation for future interventions targeting this underserved population."