Changing Middle Schoolers' Attitudes About Mental Illness Through Education

Abstract

The field test of The Science of Mental Illness curriculum supplement for middle school (grades 6-8) children provided an opportunity to assess knowledge and attitudes about mental illness in more than 1,500 middle school students throughout the United States and to evaluate the impact of an educational intervention on stigma-related attitudes. Two primary questions were examined: (1) what are the baseline knowledge and attitudes about mental illness in this sample of middle school students, and (2) does participation in a curriculum about the science of mental illness increase knowledge and improve attitudes about mental illness? Consistent with findings from other studies, results indicate that students had some understanding of mental illness as a problem of the brain with biological and psychosocial causes; however, they lacked knowledge about treatment and overall were "not sure" about many aspects of mental illness. The students did not strongly endorse negative attitudes about mental illness at baseline. The curriculum produced significant improvements in both knowledge and attitudes at posttest and was most effective in improving attitudes among those with more negative baseline attitudes. These findings suggest that a brief educational program can be an effective intervention to increase knowledge and improve attitudes about mental illness.

Young people’s perceptions of mental and physical health in the context of general wellbeing

“…While the number of students mentioning physical health-related topics remained constant there was a decrease in mentions of mentally stimulating activities corresponding with an increase in mentions of positive and rational thinking, social relationships, and more than one topic. The changes seen here demonstrates a broadening of students' views to include the topics taught in the mental health workshop and suggest that short workshops such as this can improve the short-term understanding of mental health in this age group, consistent with the findings of others (Naylor et al, 2009;Pinfold et al, 2003;Pinfold et al, 2005;Watson et al, 2004;Economou et al, 2012). The intervention reported here differs from others in that it aimed to increase young people's inclusion of mental health as an important component of general health rather than to just improve knowledge and attitudes.…”

Improving Pre-Service Teachers’ Attitudes towards Individuals with Mental Illness through an Introduction to Special Education Course

“…However, improvements for participants in the Keane (1991) It is interesting to speculate why results from the present study were more complete across subscales compared to the Keane (1991) and Watson et al (2004) studies. It could be argued that because some participants in the present study were special education majors that they would have a greater interest and contact with persons with disabilities.…”

Mental Health Stigma: What is being done to raise awareness and reduce stigma in South Africa?

“…4,[44][45][46] The World Psychiatric Association's "Open the Doors" initiative to reduce stigma 44 was particularly influential in implementing youth programmes and demonstrating their impact in various countries. Some of these involved educational programmes by psychiatrists, psychologists and consumers to high school students while others involved teenagers teaching their peers about mental illnesses.…”