Scaling Community Attitudes Toward the Mentally Ill

Abstract

The measurement of public attitudes toward the mentally ill has taken on new significance since the introduction of community-based mental health care. Previous attitude scales have been constructed and applied primarily in a professional context. This article discusses the development and application of a new set of four scales explicitly designed to measure community attitudes toward the mentally ill. The scales represent dimensions included in previous instruments, specifically, authoritarianism, benevolence, social restrictiveness, and community mental health ideology, but are expressed in terms of an almost completely new set of items that emphasize community contact with the mentally ill and mental health facilities. Data from a study of community attitudes about neighborhood mental health facilities in Toronto are used to test the internal and external validity of the scales. Results of the analysis provide strong support for the validity of the scales and demonstrate their usefulness as explanatory and predictive variables for studying community response to mental health facilities.

The Impact of Social Marketing Campaigns on Reducing Mental Health Stigma: Results From the 2009–2014 Time to Change Programme

“…Attitudes towards people with mental disorders were evaluated using a modified version of the Community Attitudes toward the Mentally Ill Scale (CAMI), consisting of 12 items [38]. The total score for each subscale was calculated so that higher scores suggest more positive or less stigmatising attitudes.…”

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

“…The most common way researchers have studied individuals' perceptions of mental illness has been through their responses on the Community Attitudes Toward the Mentally Ill (CAMI) scale developed by Taylor and Dear (1981). It has been used with nurses from various countries including the United States, Europe, Africa, and India A population whose attitudes toward individuals with mental illness has not received much research is teachers.…”

Impact of acceptance and commitment therapy versus education on stigma toward people with psychological disorders

“…The outcome measure was the Community Attitudes toward the Mentally Ill scale (CAMI; 40 items; Taylor & Dear, 1981). The CAMI is a 5-point Likert, self-report questionnaire designed to measure attitudes toward the mentally ill and has adequate to good reliabilities (alpha of .68 to .88; Taylor & Dear, 1981).…”

“…The CAMI is a 5-point Likert, self-report questionnaire designed to measure attitudes toward the mentally ill and has adequate to good reliabilities (alpha of .68 to .88; Taylor & Dear, 1981). The CAMI asks participants to rate their degree of agreement with each statement, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).…”