Date of Conferral

11-11-2025

Date of Award

November 2025

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Human Services

Advisor

Tina Jaeckle

Abstract

The work of previous researchers has shown officers to have higher rates of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety, and suicidality than the public, and a lower rate of mental health service-seeking. Stigma, both public and self-stigma, has been revealed by previous researchers to be the predominant barrier that deters officers from seeking out needed and/or desired services. A gap in research existed in examining alternative service types, and whether law enforcement officers perceived these service types as more or less stigmatizing than traditional methods. This study employed a quantitative research design to predict the probability that law enforcement officers would seek out mental health services based on their level of perceived public and self-stigma. A survey link consisting of non-identifying demographic questions and the Military Stigma Scale (MSS) was sent electronically to 226 officers within a precinct, with the final sampling frame consisting of 65 officers. Separate logistic regression models were examined in SPSS Statistics software for both in-person mental health services and services via telehealth. The results indicated that neither perceived public nor self-stigma significantly predicted officers’ willingness to seek mental health services via telehealth or in-person; however, stigma may in fact uniquely impact service-seeking, as less influence was found on telehealth compared to the more traditional in-person modality. The implications for social change are that the study not only strengthened the need for mental health stigma reduction for the law enforcement population but also revealed new variables worthy of further research.

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