Date of Award

8-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Barton, Michelle

Area of Concentration

Psychology, Sociology

Abstract

There are rising concerns about social isolation and declining mental health that have prompted increased attention to the role of culture in shaping mental health experiences, particularly through stigma. Although prior research suggests that mental health stigma varies across and within cultural groups, limited work has focused specifically on Mexican American populations. The present study examined the relationship between Mexican American cultural values and both public stigma and self-stigma toward mental illness. Measures included the Mexican American Cultural Values Scale (MACVS), the Community Attitudes toward the Mentally Ill scale (CAMI) to measure public stigma, and the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness scale (ISMI), to measure self-stigma. Survey data were collected from 60 participants living in the United States who identified as Mexican American, Mexican, or of Mexican descent. Due to missing data, sample sizes varied across analyses. Most analyses included 30 to 31 participants, whereas analyses involving self-stigma were based on a very small sample (n = 5) and should be interpreted with caution. Mexican American cultural values were not significantly associated with any of the variables: public stigma, self-stigma, age or gender. Among participants who completed the self-stigma measure, participants who perceived less Prejudice and Exclusion toward individuals with mental illness reported lower levels of self stigma, whereas the relationship between the Tolerance and Support subscale and self stigma was not statistically significant. Because these analyses were based on only five participants, the findings should be interpreted with caution. No statistically significant relationships were found between age and the study variables. Additionally, no statistically significant gender or age differences were found in Mexican American cultural values, public stigma, and self-stigma. Overall, findings highlight the complexity of mental health stigma within cultural contexts and underscore the importance of examining within-group variation. Limitations related to sample size and missing data restrict the generalizability. Future research should incorporate larger, more diverse samples and mixed-methods approaches to better understand how cultural values shape stigma and help-seeking behaviors among Mexican American populations.

Rights

The author has granted New College of Florida the nonexclusive right to archive, make accessible, and distribute for educational purposes this work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The copyright of this work remains with the author.

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