Gender and Racial-Ethnic Differences in Treatment Barriers among College Students with Suicidal Ideation

Understanding barriers to treatment-seeking among college students with suicidal ideation (SI) is critical to campus suicide prevention efforts. We used data from the Healthy Minds Study to test for gender and racial/ethnic differences in self-reported barriers to professional help-seeking among college students with past-year SI. Students (n = 1,817) with SI who reported no past-year care indicated their reasons from a list of 25 attitudes, experiences, and structural factors. We examined differences in reported barriers to mental health services between men and women and between Asian, Black, Latino, and White students. There were significant gender differences for seven of the barriers, including that men were more likely to report a preference to deal with issues on their own. There were significant racial-ethnic group differences for 14 barriers. Implications for suicide prevention practices and policies are provided, including targeted group outreach tailored to the most salient barriers to treatment.