Direct and moderating effects of personality on stigma towards mental illness

Abstract

BackgroundWhile many studies have explored the concept and correlates of stigma towards individuals with mental illness, few have investigated the role of personality in this process. In the current study, we firstly examined the relationship between personality and stigma towards mental illness; and then explored the moderating effects of personality traits on the relationship between contact experience/s and stigma.MethodsParticipants were recruited from public medical (N = 502) and nursing schools (N = 500) from April to September 2016 in Singapore for this cross-sectional survey, and they were randomly assigned to a vignette describing one of the following mental disorders: major depressive disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, alcohol abuse, schizophrenia, and dementia. Stigma was measured by the ‘Personal and Perceived scales of the Depression Stigma Scale’ and the ‘Social Distance Scale’. These scales together had a 3-factor structure based on a previous national study in Singapore, namely ‘weak-not-sick’, ‘dangerous/unpredictable’ and ‘social distance’. Personality was measured by the 20-item short form of the International Personality Item Pool-five factor model measure.ResultsRegression suggested agreeableness and openness to experience were negatively associated with all three domains of stigma. ‘Weak-not-sick’ and extraversion were positively associated; and ‘social distance’ was positively associated with higher scores on conscientiousness and neuroticism. Both close- and non-close contact were associated with more positive attitudes towards mental illness among the participants. Openness to experience moderated the relationships of close contact experience with ‘weak-not-sick’ and ‘dangerous/unpredictable’, but in different directions. The association between close contact and ‘social distance’ were moderated by agreeableness.ConclusionsUnlike non-close contact experience, close contact with people with mental illness worked differently on stigma for individuals with different personality traits. Future studies are needed to further explore the underlying mechanisms for such differences.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12888-018-1932-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Predictors of stigma in a sample of mental health professionals: Network and moderator analysis on gender, years of experience, personality traits, and levels of burnout

“…First, by pointing at the importance of individual differences on the development of negative attitudes toward patients, they suggest that it may be necessary to consider these differences when addressing the problem of stigma among mental health professionals, especially in the earlier stages of education. Our results are in line with previous studies exploring samples of college students [36] and healthcare students [37], showing a negative association between stigma and two dimensions of personality, namely agreeableness and openness. Those features may be accompanied by better empathic and communication skills [73], which in turn may affect the type of contact with the patient.…”

“…Mental health service organizations should consider implementation of personality and burnout assessments to promptly intervene and minimize stigma among mental health professionals. Further, as suggested by Yuan et al [37], since personality traits continue to develop, especially during young adulthood, future studies should address the role of personality when testing antistigma interventions, especially when they are directed to early stages of education of future healthcare professionals. Finally, given the importance of recovery orientation for stigma research [81][82][83], future studies should address the issue of the relationship among personality traits, stigmatizing beliefs, and recovery orientation among mental health professionals.…”

“…Personality may also have a direct and moderating effect on generalized prejudice [32,33], since a significant negative relationships between some personality traits (i.e., openness and agreeableness) and prejudice has been found [34]. However, although the two concepts of prejudice and stigma may consistently overlap in their causes and consequences [35], a limited number of studies have explored a possible connection between personality and stigma in the proper sense [36][37][38][39].…”

Stigma toward individuals with mental disorders among Brazilian psychiatrists: a latent class analysis

“…The participants were asked how they normally feel regarding several positive feelings and emotions, such as interest, excitement, and enthusiasm (''positive affect''). Those in the schizophrenia highest stigma subgroup presented significantly lower scores in this dimension, which was similar to the findings of Yuan et al, 35 who found a negative association between openness to experience and all three stigma domains. However, when comparing the five personality characteristics, including openness, we found no differences among the three subgroups.…”

Psychometric properties of the Depression Stigma Scale in the Portuguese population and its association with gender and depressive symptomatology

“…The Depression Stigma Scale has been defined as a good instrument to measure attitudes towards depression (Fusar-Poli et al, 2020) and has been used in recent studies in a wide range of cultures (Hanlon & Swords, 2020; Singh et al, 2019; Yang et al, 2020; Yuan et al, 2018) therefore, the detailed study of its psychometric properties is of an enormous value to the understanding and research of depression stigma, as well as the study of the effects of anti-stigma campaigns and the development of effective stigma-reduction interventions.…”