Adolescents’ Explanations for the Exclusion of Peers With Mental Health Problems

Abstract

Young people with mental health problems are often excluded from their peer group; however, research has not specifically explored their peers’ explanations for this exclusion. Drawing on data from group interviews with Irish adolescents (N = 148), this study explores the reasons offered for rejecting young people with mental health problems. Such reasons include perceived violation of expectations of friendships, and perceived social and personal risks to members of the peer group. The implications of these findings for the development of interventions to combat the stigma of mental health problems are discussed.

The Effectiveness of a Depression Literacy Program on Stigma and Mental Help-Seeking Among Adolescents in Malaysia: A Control Group Study With 3-Month Follow-Up

“…58 Especially for adolescents, for whom peer acceptance is important during this developmental stage, mental illness is perceived to incur personal and social risks, leading to the stigmatization of the mentally ill adolescent. 59 Our results suggest that the participants' knowledge of depression is associated with their attitude toward getting help. This is similar to findings from Schmidt et al, 60 Spagnolo et al, 61 and Strunk et al 62 Information related to the biological and neurological origins of mental illness, especially, may lead the public to be more open to seeking medical help for their condition.…”

Estrategias para la reducción del estigma hacia la salud mental en el contexto escolar:estudio preliminar y pilotaje del programa Lo Hablamos

“…La mejora inicial de las actitudes que se informa en algunos estudios puede tener poco poder predictivo sobre las conductas estigmatizantes o discriminatorias que podrían quedar inalteradas en un nivel más implícito. De hecho, algunos autores argumentan que la existencia de actitudes implícitas no adecuadamente medidas puede estar contaminando buena parte de los resultados encontrados en las investigaciones sobre el estigma en el contexto escolar (González-Sanguino, Muñoz, Castellanos, Pérez-Santos y Orihuela-Villameriel, 2019;O'Driscoll et al, 2012;O'Driscoll, Heary, Hennessy y McKeague, 2015a;Silke et al, 2017). Formatos muy cortos quizá logren cambios actitudinales explícitos, pero van a tener un efecto muy recortado sobre los estereotipos y prejuicios básicos hacia la enfermedad mental (Ke et al, 2015) por lo que, a nuestro juicio, es necesario optar por intervenciones más globales y extensivas para optimizar los rendimientos.…”

Introduction to the Special Section

“…The study presented by O’Driscoll, Heary, Hennessy, and McKeague (2015) took place in Ireland and investigated the ways that adolescents with mental health problems are excluded by peers. Using vignettes of adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or depression, they found that reasons for excluding peers with these problems centered on two themes, reciprocity and risk.…”