Abstract
There are more historically, underserved populations enrolled in colleges and universities, but these groups continue to disproportionality drop out of higher education institutions and have low or lengthy bachelor degree completion rates (Shapiro et al., 2017, p. 2). An influencing factor of undergraduate students’ poor academic performance is depression (Mistler, Reetz, Krylowicz, & Barr, 2013, p. 5). Underserved students have intersecting identities that make them especially vulnerable to suffer from depression; studies show that those who can recognize depression as an illness are more likely to seek help. In this thesis, the recurring influence of gender and intersecting identities are considered while underserved students’ knowledge on depression or depression literacy, and the difference in this construct between men and women, was assessed using a Depression Literacy questionnaire to explore help seeking behaviors.