Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #98982

Lionel D. Scott Jr., Center for Mental Health Services Research, Washington University in St. Louis, Campus Box 1093, 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, 314-935-7970, lscott@gwbmail.wustl.edu

Young Black males between the ages of 15 to 24 years have been described as the most vulnerable group in American society. The same description has been applied to children and youth in foster care. Focusing on young Black males who are transitioning out of the foster care system, this study examines whether satisfaction with counseling services is consequential to their cultural mistrust of mental health professionals, attitudes toward mental health services, and predisposition to seek mental health care in the future.

The sample consisted of 74 Black males ranging in age from 18 (N = 68, 91.9%) to 19 (N = 6, 8.1%) years. The majority was still in the care and custody of the Missouri Division of Family Services (N = 44, 59.5 %). Forty-seven (63.5%) were receiving or had received counseling services from a mental health professional. Results of multiple regression analyses controlling for custody status, counseling status, and psychiatric history showed that the more satisfied young Black males were with counseling effectiveness, the less culturally mistrustful they were of mental health professionals and the more favorable their attitudes toward mental health services. In addition, the more satisfied young Black males were with counselor qualities and the nature or degree of counselor conflict, the more predisposed they were to seek mental health care in the future. The findings clearly suggest that young Black male's level of satisfaction with varied dimensions of the counseling services they have received is consequential for mental health service delivery to them.

Learning Objectives:

• Elucidate how satisfaction with counseling or other mental health services among young Black males influences factors pertinent to the delivery of mental health services to them.

Keywords: Mental Health Services, Counseling

Related Web page: gwbweb.wustl.edu/projects/afammales/

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.