title: [Attitudes of Polish and British high school students towards the mentally ill and their beliefs in the causes of mental illness].
abstract: The aim of this work was to examine the attitudes of Polish and British adolescents towards the mentally ill and their beliefs about the causes of mental illness. Using a questionnaire constructed for the purpose of this work, 130 seventeen year old high school students were examined: 66 from Lublin, Poland and 64 from Wallesy, Great Britain. Analysis of the data from the first part of the questionnaire shows a similarity between the attitudes of the examined youth towards the mentally ill--the majority of respondents showed positive attitudes. Besides this, the students' beliefs on the causes of mental illness were examined. Among the students from Great Britain, the largest percentage thought that the most important causes of mental illness were brain dysfunction (28.1%), head trauma (23.4%) and vulnerability to mental illness (14.1%), where the Polish group felt that the most important are vulnerability to mental illness (22.7%), dysfunction of the brain (18.2%) and stress at work or school (12.1%).
authors.affiliation: Katedra i Klinika Psychiatrii AM w Lublinie.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kucharska-Pietura
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grzywa
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Debowska
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011044:Poland; D013334:Students; D006113:United Kingdom