College Students’ Anticipated Perceived Parental Support About Seeking Mental Health Services: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Differences by Foreign-Born Status

Sixty percent of U.S. college students report having mental health (MH) problems, but less than half seek treatment. While perceived parental support (PPS) may influence help-seeking, limited research has examined types of PPS or how these vary by foreign-born status. This mixed-methods study examined PPS for MH help-seeking among 42 undergraduate students ( M age = 20.90; SD = 2.39). Quantitative results suggested differing scores on an exploratory PPS index, which was a transformed count from qualitative coding. Qualitative results differentiated between positive and negative forms of PPS (e.g., stigma). Foreign-Born students reported lower PPS [ F (3, 37) = 4.82, p < .01] and described more stigma-related content than U.S.-born students. Findings suggest PPS is often passive and, particularly for foreign-born students, shaped by anticipated stigma, pointing to parent-based psychoeducational programming as a hypothesis-generating consideration for helping universities better equip parents to support students’ MH help-seeking.