The Influence of Free Price Information and Anti-Stigma Statement on Students’ Intention to Access Counselling Services

The current research question of the study was “how the information that counselling services are free and an anti-stigma statement influence students’ intention to access UBC’s counselling services”. To operate the study, we hypothesized that providing clear information about the free price and using an anti-stigma statement would increase the intention of students to access UBC’s mental health counselling services compared to those not exposed to the information. We operated a between-subjects 2×2 factorial design, two independent variables are information of free price and anti -stigma statement. We obtained a final sample of 204, and used an online survey to measure the intention of participants to access UBC’s mental health counselling services. We used a two-way ANOVA analysis, the results showed no significant main effect of information of free price and anti -stigma statement; no significant interaction effect between information of free price and anti -stigma statement. Therefore, the result was inconsistent with our hypothesis. We suggested targeting stigmas more directly through the use of video intervention, self affirmation framing for targeted statements, and small incentives for completing screening surveys. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”Arts, Faculty ofPsychology, Department ofUnreviewedUndergraduat