Term of Award

Winter 2026

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Psychology

Committee Chair

Karen Naufel

Committee Member 1

Thresa Yancey

Committee Member 2

Ryan Couillou

Abstract

In 2022, approximately 59 million adults in the United States were diagnosed with a mental health disorder, and approximately half received mental health services (NIMH, 2023). Given the number of individuals whose mental health concerns remain untreated, it is vital to investigate mechanisms predicting treatment-seeking behaviors. Health literacy, which influences treatment-seeking, is largely absent from research on barriers to mental health treatment. Health literacy is related to readability, the ease of reading (Adkins & Singh, 2001), and jargon, the technical language used by professionals in a field (Shulman et al., 2020). Health materials are often written at a high reading level with complex writing style (Adkins & Singh, 2001; King et al., 2023). Similarly, jargon use decreases comprehension, increases perceived difficulty of information, and elicits adverse emotional reactions, such as apprehension (Bullock et al., 2019; Davis et al., 2017; Shulman et al., 2020). The effects of readability and jargon in mental health settings, however, are largely unknown. The present study aimed to fill these gaps by scientifically testing the relationship among health literacy, jargon/readability, and treatment-seeking interests. The responses of 430 participants were analyzed to explore these relationships. Contrary to expectations, health literacy was not associated with treatment-seeking attitudes, comfort, and willingness to refer a friend. There was also no significant effect of the vignette condition (varying reading levels and jargon) on participants’ perceptions of difficulty (measuring readability) and familiarity with the terms (measuring jargon). There was, however, a positive association between treatment-seeking attitudes, comfort with a provider, and willingness to refer a friend. This study aimed to advance research on the impact of jargon in therapy contexts.

INDEX WORDS: Health literacy, Treatment-seeking attitudes, Jargon, Readability/reading level

OCLC Number

1528890148

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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