Top

International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction

Published in:

Open Access 22-02-2022 | Schizophrenia | Original Article

Adolescents’ Continuum and Categorical Beliefs, Help-seeking Intentions, and Stigma Towards People Experiencing Depression or Schizophrenia

Authors: Dominic K. Fernandez, Frank P. Deane, Stewart A. Vella

Published in: International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction | Issue 6/2022

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationships between continuum and categorical beliefs, stigma, and help-seeking in response to vignettes depicting depression and schizophrenia. Participants were 193 adolescents aged 13-18 years. Results showed no relationships between continuum beliefs and stigma or help-seeking intentions for the depression vignette when controlling for other predictors. Stronger categorical beliefs were associated with greater social distance, and endorsement of dangerousness, avoidance, and fear. For the schizophrenia vignette, higher continuum beliefs predicted lower prognostic pessimism, social distance, and stigmatising attitudes. Surprisingly, continuum beliefs predicted greater intentions to not seek help. Categorical beliefs were associated with greater prognostic pessimism, social distance, and stigmatising attitudes. Future research is needed to explore the effect of continuum belief interventions on adolescent mental health stigma.

Available only for authorised users

Angermeyer, M. C., Millier, A., Rémuzat, C., Refaï, T., Schomerus, G., & Toumi, M. (2015). Continuum beliefs and attitudes towards people with mental illness: Results from a national survey in France. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 61(3), 297–303. https://doi.org/10.1177/002076401454331CrossRefPubMed

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2008). National survey of mental health and wellbeing: summary of results, Australia, 2007. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/mental-health/national-survey-mental-health-and-wellbeing-summary-results/latest-release. Accessed 21 May 2021.

Buckwitz, V., Porter, P. A., Bommes, J. N., Schomerus, G., & Hinshaw, S. P. (2020). Continuum beliefs and the stigma of depression: An online investigation. Stigma and Health. https://doi.org/10.1037/sah0000272CrossRef

Commonwealth of Australia. (2011). Estimating the number of people with psychotic illness treated by public specialised mental health services. https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-pubs-p-psych10-toc~mental-pubs-p-psych10-exe~mental-pubs-p-psych10-exe-est. Accessed 30 May 2021.

Cook, R. D., & Weisberg, S. (1982). Residuals and influence in regression. Chapman & Hall

Corrigan, P. W., Lurie, B. D., Goldman, H. H., Slopen, N., Medasani, K., & Phelan, S. M. (2005). How adolescents perceive the stigma of mental illness and alcohol abuse. Psychiatric Services, 56(5), 544–550. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.56.5.544CrossRefPubMed

Corrigan, P. W., Morris, S. B., Michaels, P. J., Rafacz, J. D., & Rüsch, N. (2012). Challenging the public stigma of mental illness: A meta-analysis of outcome studies. Psychiatric Services, 63(10), 963–973. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201100529CrossRefPubMed

Dolphin, L., & Hennessy, E. (2017). Labelling effects and adolescent responses to peers with depression: An experimental investigation. BMC Psychiatry, 17(1), 228. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-017-1389-9CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Fernandez, D. K., Deane, F. P., & Vella, S. A. (2022). Effects of Online Continuum and Categorical Belief Manipulations on Schizophrenia Stigma, Help-Seeking, and Help-Provision. Psychiatry Research, 307, 114293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2021.114293

Gulliver, A., Griffiths, K. M., & Christensen, H. (2010). Perceived barriers and facilitators to mental health help-seeking in young people: A systematic review. BMC Psychiatry, 10(1), 113. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-10-113CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Hair, J. (2009). Multivariate data analysis. Faculty Publications. https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/facpubs/2925. Accessed 25 May 2021.

Hart, C. M., Ritchie, T. D., Hepper, E. G., & Gebauer, J. E. (2015). The Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding Short Form (BIDR-16): SAGE Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015621113

Jorm, A. F., & Griffiths, K. M. (2008). The public’s stigmatizing attitudes towards people with mental disorders: How important are biomedical conceptualizations? Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 118(4), 315–321. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0447.2008.01251.xCrossRefPubMed

Jorm, A. F., & Wright, A. (2008). Influences on young people’s stigmatising attitudes towards peers with mental disorders: National survey of young Australians and their parents. British Journal of Psychiatry, 192(2), 144–149. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.107.039404CrossRef

Jorm, A. F., Wright, A., & Morgan, A. J. (2007). Beliefs about appropriate first aid for young people with mental disorders: Findings from an Australian national survey of youth and parents. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 1(1), 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-7893.2007.00012.xCrossRefPubMed

Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R., Merikangas, K. R., & Walters, E. E. (2005). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the national comorbidity survey replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(6), 593–602. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.593CrossRefPubMed

Kessler, R. C., Amminger, G. P., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Alonso, J., Lee, S., & Ustün, T. B. (2007). Age of onset of mental disorders: a review of recent literature. Current opinion in psychiatry, 20(4), 359–364. https://doi.org/10.1097/YCO.0b013e32816ebc8cCrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Lawrence, D., Johnson, S. E., Hafekost, J., Boterhoven de Haan, K., Sawyer, M. G., Ainley, J., & Zubrick, S. (2015). Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Australia, & Department of Health. The mental health of children and adolescents: Report on the second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. Department of Health. http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-pubs-m-child2. Accessed 25 May 2021.

Lebowitz, M. S., Ahn, W. K., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2013). Fixable or fate? Perceptions of the biology of depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 81(3), 518–527. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031730CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. C. (2001). Conceptualizing stigma. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 363–385. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.363CrossRef

Meade, A. W., & Craig, S. B. (2012). Identifying careless responses in survey data. Psychological Methods, 17(3), 437–455. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028085CrossRefPubMed

Peter, L. J., Schindler, S., Sander, C., Schmidt, S., Muehlan, H., McLaren, T. … Schomerus, G. (2021). Continuum beliefs and mental illness stigma: A systematic review and meta-analysis of correlation and intervention studies. Psychological Medicine, 51(5), 716–726. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291721000854CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Reavley, N. J., & Jorm, A. F. (2011). Stigmatizing Attitudes towards People with Mental Disorders: Findings from an Australian National Survey of Mental Health Literacy and Stigma. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 45(12), 1086–1093. https://doi.org/10.3109/00048674.2011.621061CrossRef

Schomerus, G., Angermeyer, M. C., Baumeister, S. E., Stolzenburg, S., Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. C. (2016). An online intervention using information on the mental health-mental illness continuum to reduce stigma. European Psychiatry, 32, 21–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2015.11.006CrossRefPubMed

Schomerus, G., Matschinger, H., & Angermeyer, M. C. (2013). Continuum beliefs and stigmatizing attitudes towards persons with schizophrenia, depression and alcohol dependence. Psychiatry Research, 209(3), 665–669. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2013.02.006CrossRefPubMed

Stevens, J. P. (2002). Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences (4th ed.). Erlbaum

Thibodeau, R. (2019). Continuum Belief, Categorical Belief, and Depression Stigma: Correlational Evidence and Outcomes of an Online Intervention. Stigma and Health, Online First Posting. https://doi.org/10.1037/sah0000211

Thibodeau, R., & Peterson, K. M. (2018). On continuum beliefs and psychiatric stigma: Similarity to a person with schizophrenia can feel too close for comfort. Psychiatry Research, 270, 731–737. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2018.10.070CrossRefPubMed

Thibodeau, R., Shanks, L. N., & Smith, B. P. (2018). Do continuum beliefs reduce schizophrenia stigma? Effects of a laboratory intervention on behavioral and self-reported stigma. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 58, 29–35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2017.08.002CrossRefPubMed

Violeau, L., Valery, K.-M., Fournier, T., & Prouteau, A. (2020). How continuum beliefs can reduce stigma of schizophrenia: The role of perceived similarities. Schizophrenia Research Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2020.04.014CrossRef

Watson, A. C., Otey, E., Westbrook, A. L., Gardner, A. L., Lamb, T. A., Corrigan, P. W., & Fenton, W. S. (2004). Changing middle schoolers’ attitudes about mental illness through education. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 30(3), 563–572. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.schbul.a007100CrossRefPubMed

Wiesjahn, M., Brabban, A., Jung, E., Gebauer, U. B., & Lincoln, T. M. (2014). Are continuum beliefs about psychotic symptoms associated with stereotypes about schizophrenia? Psychosis, 6(1), 50–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/17522439.2012.740068CrossRef

Wilson, C., Deane, F., Ciarrochi, J., & Rickwood, D. (2005). Measuring help seeking intentions: Properties of the General Help Seeking Questionnaire (pp. 15–28). Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Yap, M. B. H., & Jorm, A. F. (2011). The influence of stigma on first aid actions taken by young people for mental health problems in a close friend or family member: Findings from an Australian national survey of youth. Journal of Affective Disorders, 134(1–3), 473–477. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2011.05.039CrossRefPubMed

Yap, M. B. H., Wright, A., & Jorm, A. F. (2011). The influence of stigma on young people’s help-seeking intentions and beliefs about the helpfulness of various sources of help. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 46(12), 1257–1265. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-010-0300-5CrossRefPubMed

Title: Adolescents’ Continuum and Categorical Beliefs, Help-seeking Intentions, and Stigma Towards People Experiencing Depression or Schizophrenia
Authors: Dominic K. Fernandez
Frank P. Deane
Stewart A. Vella
Publication date: 22-02-2022
Publisher: Springer US
Keywords: Schizophrenia
Mood Disorders
Affective Disorder
Published in: International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction / Issue 6/2022
Print ISSN: 1557-1874
Electronic ISSN: 1557-1882
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-022-00766-5

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Adolescents’ Continuum and Categorical Beliefs, Help-seeking Intentions, and Stigma Towards People Experiencing Depression or Schizophrenia

Abstract

At a glance: The STEP trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 6/2022

Interdisciplinary and International Perspectives on Mental Illness and Substance Use Stigma

The Relationship Between Sexual Behavior Stigma and Depression Among Men Who have Sex with Men and Transgender Women in Kigali, Rwanda: a Cross-sectional Study

Opioid Use Stigma: An Examination of Student Attitudes on Harm Reduction Strategies

Barriers to Obstetric Prenatal Care Among Pregnant Women at Risk for Dual Pathology

Effects of Recovery Measures on Internalized Stigma in Patients Diagnosed with Schizophrenia

Does Online Newsmedia Portrayal of Substance Use and Persons with Substance Misuse Endorse Stigma? A Qualitative Study from India