Table 1.
Characteristics of Respondents to State Legislator Survey and of State‐Level Contextual Factors, 2017 (N = 475)
| % | |
|---|---|
| Legislators’ Fixed Characteristics | |
| Gender | |
| Female | 24.6 |
| Male | 75.4 |
| Highest level of education | |
| College degree or less | 51.3 |
| Postgraduate degree or more | 48.7 |
| Political party | |
| Democrat | 43.5 |
| Republican | 54.1 |
| Other | 2.4 |
| Ideology | |
| Liberal | 28.0 |
| Moderate | 23.7 |
| Conservative | 48.4 |
| Legislators’ Mutable Characteristics | |
| Strongly supports C‐SBHPL | |
| Yes | 38.7 |
| No | 61.3 |
| Beliefs about impact of C‐SBHPL | |
| Believes that C‐SBHPL increases access to behavioral health treatments | |
| Yes | 72.8 |
| No | 27.2 |
| Believes that C‐SBHPL does not increase insurance premiums | |
| Yes | 16.1 |
| No | 84.0 |
| Beliefs about treatment effectiveness | |
| Strongly agrees that mental health treatments can be effective | |
| Yes | 54.1 |
| No | 45.9 |
| Strongly agrees that substance use disorder treatments can be effective | |
| Yes | 49.1 |
| No | 50.9 |
| Stigma toward people with mental illness | |
| Stigma score (mean, SD)a | 5.6 (3.4) |
| State‐Level Contextual Factors | |
| Days since mass shooting | |
| > 1,095 days | 78.1 |
| ≤ 1,095 days | 21.9 |
| Opioid overdose death rate | |
| 2015 opioid overdose death rate per 100,000 state residents (mean, SD) | 11.9 (7.5) |
| 2014/2015 percent change in opioid overdose death rate per 100,000 state residents (mean, SD) | 9.3 (14.7) |
| C‐SBHPL implementation status | |
| C‐SBHPL implemented | 43.06 |
| Limited SBHPL implemented | 37.02 |
| No SBHPL implemented | 19.93 |
| Partisan composition of legislature | |
| Democrat | 22.7 |
| Republican | 70.2 |
| Split/unicameral | 7.1 |
| Unemployment | |
| State unemployment rate (mean, SD) | 3.9 (0.9) |
| Magnitude of C‐SBHPL exemption for employer self‐insurance | |
| Proportion of employer‐sponsored health benefit plans fully self‐insured in state, participant weighted (mean, SD) | 21.5 (9.6) |
Abbreviation: C‐SBHPL = comprehensive state behavioral health parity legislation. Data are weighted between respondents and nonrespondents for differences in gender, geographic region, and political party.
a
Range = 0 to 14.