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Mental health literacy : a cross-cultural approach to knowledge and beliefs about depression, schizophrenia and generalized anxiety disorder
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Altweck, Laura, Marshall, Tara C., Ferenczi, Nelli and Lefringhausen, Katharina (2015) Mental health literacy : a cross-cultural approach to knowledge and beliefs about depression, schizophrenia and generalized anxiety disorder. Frontiers in Psychology, 6 . 1272. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01272 ISSN 1664-1078.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01272
Abstract
Many families worldwide have at least one member with a behavioral or mental disorder, and yet the majority of the public fails to correctly recognize symptoms of mental illness. Previous research has found that Mental Health Literacy (MHL)—the knowledge and positive beliefs about mental disorders—tends to be higher in European and North American cultures, compared to Asian and African cultures. Nonetheless quantitative research examining the variables that explain this cultural difference remains limited. The purpose of our study was fourfold: (a) to validate measures of MHL cross-culturally, (b) to examine the MHL model quantitatively, (c) to investigate cultural differences in the MHL model, and (d) to examine collectivism as a predictor of MHL. We validated measures of MHL in European American and Indian samples. The results lend strong quantitative support to the MHL model. Recognition of symptoms of mental illness was a central variable: greater recognition predicted greater endorsement of social causes of mental illness and endorsement of professional help-seeking as well as lesser endorsement of lay help-seeking. The MHL model also showed an overwhelming cultural difference; namely, lay help-seeking beliefs played a central role in the Indian sample, and a negligible role in the European American sample. Further, collectivism was positively associated with causal beliefs of mental illness in the European American sample, and with lay help-seeking beliefs in the Indian sample. These findings demonstrate the importance of understanding cultural differences in beliefs about mental illness, particularly in relation to help-seeking beliefs.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine | ||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Applied Linguistics | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Mental health -- Treatment -- United States, Mental health -- Treatment -- Europe, Mental health -- Treatment -- India, Culture, Help-seeking behavior, Schizophrenia, Manic-depressive illness, Collectivism | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Frontiers in Psychology | ||||||||
Publisher: | Frontiers Research Foundation | ||||||||
ISSN: | 1664-1078 | ||||||||
Official Date: | 8 September 2015 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 6 | ||||||||
Article Number: | 1272 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01272 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 23 September 2016 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 23 September 2016 |
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