Creation of a Mental Health Treatment Fears and Obstacles Inventory for College Students

This project concerned the creation of an inventory for college students of treatment fears and obstacles to seeking mental health services. Unlike previous research, undergraduate participants generated a pool of items to measure fears of and obstacles to seeking services. Subsequent rational and statistical refinement resulted in a 29-item scale that exhibits a clear factor structure and solid internal consistency. The new scale, Mental Health Treatment Fears and Obstacles (MHTFO) demonstrates a robust association with a shorter, existing measure, and the pattern of correlations with relevant popular measures supports its construct validity as a unique assessment. Results suggest that the MHTFO may make a valuable contribution to investigating fears about seeking mental health services; although further research is needed to demonstrate psychometric quality.