Overcoming the Mental Health Stigma Through m-Health Apps: Results from the Healthy Minds Study
Abstract
Background: The advance in digital media technologies has enabled the development of technologically mediated health care solutions. Mobile health app for mental health care is one of such innovative tools to monitor and manage users' mental health and psychological well-being. Objective: This study examines the factors predicting the acceptance of mental health app (MHA) that are: technological (i.e., perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness) and sociocultural (i.e., perceived stigma toward mental health treatment and prior experience of face-to-face mental health service utilization). Methods: Using structural equation modeling, we tested an extended Technology Acceptance Model with data from the Healthy Minds Study, a web-based national survey of U.S. college students ( N = 429). Results: In addition to the technological factors, the sociocultural factors significantly influenced MHA acceptance. Notably, college students with higher levels of stigma toward mental health treatment were less likely to have experience of using face-to-face mental health service. This, in turn, led to more openness to accepting MHA that does not involve in-person visits but rather private and mediated communication. Conclusions: Findings of this study provide critical insight into the increasing needs for and use of mobile apps for mental health care. Implications are discussed and future research directions are suggested.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Students who experience higher levels of mental health-related stigma are less inclined to use face-to-face mental health services and are more open to digital tools such as mental health mobile apps.
“students who experience higher levels of MH-related stigma are less inclined to use face-to-face MH services and are more open to digital tools such as MH mobile apps [12]”
From Optimization of a Transdiagnostic Mobile Emotion Regulation Intervention for University Students: Protocol for a Microrandomized Trial (2023) · cites this paper as [12]
Cites
Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology
Davis, F. D. (1989) · MIS Quarterly · doi:10.2307/249008 · Cited by 68,483 · see citing works
<b>lavaan</b> : An <i>R</i> Package for Structural Equation Modeling
Rosseel, Y. (2012) · Journal of Statistical Software · doi:10.18637/jss.v048.i02 · Cited by 27,955 · see citing works
The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: Rapid review of the evidence
Brooks, S. K., Webster, R. K., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N., & Rubin, G. J. (2020) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30460-8 · Cited by 16,378 · see citing works
Clement, S., Schauman, O., Graham, T., Maggioni, F., Evans-Lacko, S., Bezborodovs, N., Morgan, C., Rüsch, N., Brown, J. S. L., & Thornicroft, G. (2015) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291714000129 · Cited by 3,152 · see citing works
Predicting and Changing Behavior
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (2011) · doi:10.4324/9780203838020 · Cited by 2,807 · see citing works
Jorm, A. F., Korten, A. E., Jacomb, P. A., Christensen, H., Rodgers, B., & Pollitt, P. (1997) · Medical Journal of Australia · doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.1997.tb140071.x · Cited by 2,585 · see citing works
Challenging the public stigma of mental illness: a meta-analysis of outcome studies
Corrigan, P. W., Morris, S. B., Michaels, P. J., Rafacz, J. D., & Rüsch, N. (2012) · Psychiatric Services · doi:10.1176/appi.ps.201100529 · Cited by 1,680 · see citing works
Smartphones for smarter delivery of mental health programs: A systematic review
Donker, T., Petrie, K., Proudfoot, J., Clarke, J., Birch, M.-R., & Christensen, H. (2013) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/jmir.2791 · Cited by 1,136 · see citing works
Help-Seeking and Access to Mental Health Care in a University Student Population
Eisenberg, D., Golberstein, E., & Gollust, S. E. (2007) · Medical Care · doi:10.1097/mlr.0b013e31803bb4c1 · Cited by 1,131 · see citing works
Abe-Kim, J., Takeuchi, D. T., Hong, S., Zane, N., Sue, S., Spencer, M. S., Appel, H., Nicdao, E., & Alegría, M. (2007) · American Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2105/ajph.2006.098541 · Cited by 745 · see citing works
Public Stigma of Mental Illness in the United States: A Systematic Literature Review
Parcesepe, A. M., & Cabassa, L. J. (2013) · Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research · doi:10.1007/s10488-012-0430-z · Cited by 554 · cited 1× · see citing works
“22 Widespread stigma and negative stereotypes include the ideas that having mental health problems such as depression is being weak, inferior, incompetent, or vulnerable, and that the condition is shameful, embarrassing, or socially unacceptable.”
Modeling Patients' Acceptance of Provider-delivered E-health
Wilson, E. V. (2004) · Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association · doi:10.1197/jamia.m1475 · Cited by 352 · see citing works
Lipson, S. K., & Eisenberg, D. (2017) · Journal of Mental Health · doi:10.1080/09638237.2017.1417567 · Cited by 259 · see citing works
Feijt, M. A., de Kort, Y. A. W., Bongers, I. M. B., Bierbooms, J. J. P. A., Westerink, J. H. D. M., & IJsselsteijn, W. A. (2020) · Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking · doi:10.1089/cyber.2020.0370 · Cited by 237 · see citing works
Racial Differences in Stigmatizing Attitudes Toward People With Mental Illness
Anglin, D. M., Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. C. (2006) · Psychiatric Services · doi:10.1176/ps.2006.57.6.857 · Cited by 219 · see citing works
Acceptance Factors of Mobile Apps for Diabetes by Patients Aged 50 or Older: A Qualitative Study
Scheibe, M., Reichelt, J., Bellmann, M., & Kirch, W. (2015) · Medicine 2 0 · doi:10.2196/med20.3912 · Cited by 181 · see citing works
Developing mental health mobile apps: Exploring adolescents’ perspectives
Kenny, R., Dooley, B., & Fitzgerald, A. (2016) · Health Informatics Journal · doi:10.1177/1460458214555041 · Cited by 175 · see citing works
Ahtinen, A., Mattila, E., Välkkynen, P., Kaipainen, K., Vanhala, T., Ermes, M., Sairanen, E., Myllymäki, T., & Lappalainen, R. (2013) · JMIR mhealth and uhealth · doi:10.2196/mhealth.2596 · Cited by 173 · see citing works
Swami, V. (2012) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049779 · Cited by 166 · see citing works
The SmartCAT: An m-Health Platform for Ecological Momentary Intervention in Child Anxiety Treatment
Pramana, G., Parmanto, B., Kendall, P. C., & Silk, J. S. (2014) · Telemedicine and e-Health · doi:10.1089/tmj.2013.0214 · Cited by 162 · see citing works
Preferences for e-mental health services amongst an online Australian sample?
Klein, B., & Cook, S. (2010) · E-Journal of Applied Psychology · doi:10.7790/ejap.v6i1.184 · Cited by 117 · see citing works
Theoretical Advancements in mHealth: A Systematic Review of Mobile Apps
Chib, A., & Lin, S. H. (2018) · Journal of Health Communication · doi:10.1080/10810730.2018.1544676 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
Mental health apps in a college setting: openness, usage, and attitudes.
Kern, A., Hong, V., Song, J., Lipson, S., & Eisenberg, D. (2018) · mHealth · doi:10.21037/mhealth.2018.06.01 · Cited by 96 · see citing works
Gaddis, S. M., Ramirez, D., & Hernandez, E. L. (2017) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.11.029 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
DeAndrea, D. C. (2014) · Journal of Health Communication · doi:10.1080/10810730.2014.914606 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Factors Affecting Acceptance of Smartphone Application for Management of Obesity
Jeon, E., & Park, H. (2015) · Healthcare Informatics Research · doi:10.4258/hir.2015.21.2.74 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Levin, M. E., Krafft, J., & Levin, C. (2018) · Journal of American College Health · doi:10.1080/07448481.2018.1440580 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Tablet computers in support of rural and frontier clinical practice
Anderson, C., Henner, T., & Burkey, J. (2013) · International Journal of Medical Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2013.08.006 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Wang, Y., & Collins, W. B. (2020) · Telematics and Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.tele.2020.101552 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Self-citationSocio-demographic variables and perceptual moderators related to mental health stigma
Stickney, S., Yanosky, D. J., Black, D. R., & Stickney, N. L. (2012) · Journal of Mental Health · doi:10.3109/09638237.2012.670878 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Patel, R. V., Green, W., Shahzad, M. W., & Larkin, C. (2015) · JMIR mhealth and uhealth · doi:10.2196/mhealth.4388 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Clough, B. A., & Casey, L. M. (2015) · International Journal of Cyber Behavior Psychology and Learning · doi:10.4018/ijcbpl.2015010103 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Niu, Z., & Willoughby, J. F. (2018) · Asian Journal of Communication · doi:10.1080/01292986.2018.1441319 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Xu, Y. A., Chan, L. S., & McLaughlin, M. L. (2020) · Journal of Communications In Healthcare · doi:10.1080/17538068.2020.1800370 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Laure, T., Engels, R. C. M. E., Remmerswaal, D., Spruijt-Metz, D., Konigorski, S., & Boffo, M. (2023) · JMIR Research Protocols · doi:10.2196/46603 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
“Moreover, students who experience higher levels of MH-related stigma are less inclined to use face-to-face MH services and are more open to digital tools such as MH mobile apps [12].”
Background
- Authors
- Kim, H. M., Xu, Y., & Wang, Y.
- Affiliations
- University of Southern California (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kim, Hye Min
- Venue
- Telemedicine and e-Health
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2022-10
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 1534-1540
- ISSN
- 1530-5627 (ISSN-L)
- 1556-3669
- OpenAlex
- W4220657744
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 5.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Telemedicine Journal and e-Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Keywords
- mental health stigma, mobile health apps, technology acceptance, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, university students, mental health service utilization, sociocultural factors, Healthy Minds Study
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Mental Health, Telemedicine, Internet, Social Stigma, Mobile Applications
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
