The relationship between Etiology Beliefs and Beliefs About Psychological Services of College Students: The Moderating Effect of Psychological Mindedness

Objectives In order to facilitate the utilization of counseling services by alleviating the service gap among college students, this study was to examine the relationship between etiology beliefs and beliefs about psychological services(BAPS) in college students. Also, the study investigated whether the psychological mindedness has a moderating effect on the relationship between etiology beliefs and BAPS. Methods The survey was conducted for students from 13 colleges and a total of 361 participants’ data was used for analysis. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to examine whether biological, psychological, and social etiology beliefs and psychological mindedness predicted sub-factors of BAPS -expertness, stigma tolerance, and intent- and investigate the moderating effect, after controlling the effects of demographic variables. Results As a result, psychological mindedness significantly predicted all three sub-factors of BAPS. As psychological mindedness increased, the expertness was perceived more positively, and both the stigma tolerance and the intent increased. In addition, the moderating effect of psychological mindedness was found in the relationship between biological etiology beliefs and the stigma tolerance, psychological etiology beliefs and all three sub-factors of BAPS, and social etiology beliefs and the intent. First, as psychological mindedness decreased, the psychological etiology beliefs had a stronger tendency to negatively predict the expertness. Second, as the level of psychological mindedness decreased, the biological etiology beliefs had a stronger tendency to positively predict the stigma tolerance, and the psychological etiology beliefs had a stronger tendency to negatively predict the stigma tolerance. Finally, as psychological mindedness decreased, the psychological etiology beliefs had a stronger tendency to negatively predict the intent, and the social etiology beliefs had a stronger tendency to positively predict the intent. Conclusions Based on the results, the applicability of promotional and educational aspects of counseling services, limitations of the study, and suggestions for future research were discussed.