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

在过去的十年里，大学生的心理健康需求有所上升，心理健康状况（mhc）如抑郁症、恐慌症和广泛性焦虑症等越来越普遍。对mhc的耻辱感，即强烈的不赞成感，是一个全社会的问题，往往与mhc患者寻求帮助的态度相冲突。工程被认为是一个要求很高的领域，在这个领域，高压力和耐力的文化经常被提倡，特别是对边缘群体的成员来说，社会化面临着具体的挑战。这些因素往往与mhc的发生和持续有关。然而，众所周知，虽然工科学生的mhc患病率并不高，但那些有mhc的学生比其他专业领域的学生更不容易寻求帮助。本项目将探讨工程文化中可能强化mhc污名化观点的因素，从而限制学生和早期专业人员在需要时寻求帮助的能力。本研究将探讨学生和早期专业人员的经历，以了解影响他们内化耻辱、学习mhc的兴趣和帮助他人能力的工程文化因素。项目团队将关注学生与其他参与者（如教师和管理人员）的互动，以探索关于mhc的信念如何在工程教育空间中永存。这项研究有可能为专业文化以及它们如何与mhc的流行和管理相互作用带来有价值的见解，例如可能促进mhc负面观点的关键动态、背景和相互作用。该项目的目标是确定影响mhc耻辱的工程文化元素，从而影响学生和早期专业人员的求助态度。这将通过一项为期三年的纵向顺序混合方法研究来实现。每年将通过使用既定工具进行调查，定量地衡量mhc的污名化与寻求帮助态度之间的关系。第一年的调查结果将根据最大可变性原则进行分析，为我们的纵向多案例研究提供信息，该研究将使用主题和叙事分析。纵向定量分析将考察参与者在工程培训和职业生涯过渡期间所考虑的关系的演变，以及他们的特征、对工程文化的看法、工程身份和归属感如何调节这些关系。这种纵向方法将探索工程专业学生离开学术空间从事他们的第一个专业经验的重要过渡点及其对他们心理健康的影响。该研究设计还将研究没有mhc的学生的前景如何随着时间的推移而变化。由于mhc可以在人生的任何阶段发展，而大学生活的许多因素，包括工程培训的具体因素，都与不良的心理健康结果有关，因此本项目的结果有可能从学习和实践工程中确定可能导致mhc发病的因素。项目成果将通过全面描述mhc学生和早期专业人员所面临的挑战，促进工程领域的公平和包容。由于工程专业的学生和其他边缘身份的专业人士更有可能经历mhc，项目结果将有可能说明这些群体所面临的具体挑战。与全国精神疾病联盟（NAMI）的伙伴关系将使全国范围内的大学内外的听众能够通过他们的一些既定倡议得到支持。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.