Beliefs & Demand for Mental Health Services Among Univeristy Students

Pre-publication, can be found at:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5192345 

This paper investigates the role of beliefs and stigma in shaping students’ use of professional mental health services at a large private university in Mexico, where supply-side barriers are minimal and services are readily accessible. In an online experiment with 680 students, we estimate a large treatment gap with nearly 50% of students in distress not receiving professional mental health support despite a high level of awareness and perceived effectiveness. We document stigmatized beliefs and misconceptions correlated with the treatment gap. For example, three-quarters of students incorrectly believe that those in distress perform worse academically, and many underestimate how common therapy use is among their peers. To correct inaccurate beliefs, we implement an information intervention and find that it increases students’ willingness to share on-campus mental health resources with peers and encourages them to recommend these resources when advising a friend in distress. However, we also find that it lowers their willingness to pay for external services, suggesting a potential substitution effect from private therapy to free on-campus resources. 

Suggested Citation:

Batmanov, Alisher and Grigoryeva, Idaliya and Calderón-Hernández, Bruno and González Téllez, Roberto and Guardiola, Alejandro, Beliefs & Demand for Mental Health Services Among University Students (January 31, 2025). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5192345 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5192345