Abstract:
An extant body of literature suggests sexual minority individuals are at a greater risk for
mental health problems compared to heterosexual individuals. This health disparity has been
attributed to unique, chronic, and excessive social stressors, or “minority stress,” which has been
linked to poor mental and physical health outcomes for this population. While previous studies
imply sexual minorities utilize mental health services at a greater rate than heterosexual
individuals, little research has focused on factors influencing sexual minorities’ intentions to
seek psychological help. Furthermore, no study to date has explored the extent to which minority
stress impacts these individuals’ help-seeking intentions. Using Meyer’s (1995, 2003) minority
stress theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior, the present study examined the relationship
among minority stress, prior counseling experience, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived
behavioral control in predicting intentions to seek psychological help among sexual minorities.
Latent variable structural equation modeling was used to test and compare two hypothesized
models. In both the unmediated and mediated models, having prior counseling experience, more
positive attitudes toward, less perceived social pressure to engage in, and greater perceived
control over seeking help directly predicted greater intentions to seek psychological help for
sexual minorities. Model comparison analyses suggested both models fit the data equally well.
Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed
