Medical Student Beliefs and Attitudes Toward Mental Illness Across Five Nations.
Negative attitudes toward people with mental illness are a widespread concern and may vary across countries. This study used a 36-item questionnaire to compare attitudes toward people with mental illness and beliefs about the causes of mental illness among medical students from the United States, Brazil, Ghana, Nigeria, and China (N = 1131). Exploratory factor analysis identified the underlying factor structure of the questionnaire, and analysis of covariance was then used to compare factors representing four nonstigmatized attitudes across students from the five countries. US Medical students scored highest on all four factors, followed by those from Brazil. Nigerian and Ghanaian students scored lowest on nonsupernatural etiology of mental illness, and Chinese students showed the lowest score on personal social acceptance and public policy acceptance of people with mental illness. Differences in medical student attitudes between these five countries suggest underlying sociocultural differences in attitudes with the more stigmatized attitudes in developing countries.
*Yale University School of Medicine (YUSM), New Haven; †Veterans Affairs (VA) New England Mental Illness Research and Education Clinical Center (MIRECC), West Haven, CT; ‡Guangzhou Psychiatric and Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, China; §Medical School College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana; and ∥Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Elina A
EA
Stefanovics
Robert A
RA
Rosenheck
Hongo
H
He
Angela
A
Ofori-Atta
Maria
M
Cavalcanti
Catherine
C
Chiles
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel / Q000208:ethnology*; D001938:Brazil / Q000208:ethnology; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D005869:Ghana / Q000208:ethnology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology*; D009549:Nigeria / Q000208:ethnology; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000208:ethnology