Stigma of Mental Illness in Germans and Turkish Immigrants in Germany: The Effect of Causal Beliefs

Abstract

Background: Stigma poses an additional burden for people suffering from mental illness, one that often impairs their social participation and can prevent them from seeking adequate help. It is therefore crucial to understand how stigma develops in order to counteract it by setting up effective evidence-based anti-stigma interventions. The present study examines the effect of causal beliefs on stigmatizing behavioral intentions, namely people's desire to distance themselves from persons with mental illness. In addition, we draw cross-cultural comparisons between native Germans and Turkish immigrants to investigate the influence of culture on stigma and causal beliefs and to broaden knowledge on the biggest immigrant group in Germany and on immigrants in Western countries in general. Methods: n = 302 native Germans and n = 173 Turkish immigrants were presented either a depression or a schizophrenia vignette. Then, causal beliefs, emotional reaction and desire for social distance were assessed with questionnaires. Path analyses were carried out to investigate the influence of causal beliefs on the desire for social distance and their mediation by emotional reactions for Germans and Turkish immigrants, respectively. Results: We found an influence of causal beliefs on the desire for social distance. Emotional reactions partly mediated this relationship. Causal attribution patterns as well as the relationship between causal attributions and stigma varied across both subsamples and mental illnesses. In the German subsample, the ascription of unfavorable personal traits resulted in more stigma. In the Turkish immigrant subsample, supernatural causal beliefs increased stigma while attribution to current stress reduced stigma. Conclusion: Our study has implications for future anti-stigma interventions that intend to reduce stigmatization of mentally ill people. Targeting the ascription of unfavorable personal traits and supernatural causal attributions as well as promoting current stress as the cause for mental illness appears to be of particular importance. Also, the mediating influence of emotional responses to causal beliefs needs to be addressed. Furthermore, differential interventions across cultural groups and specific mental illnesses may be appropriate.

The Important Role of Stereotypes in the relation between Mental Health Literacy and Stigmatization of Depression and Psychosis in the Community

“…G Endorsing a psychosocial stress model decreases the perceived dangerousness of people with a mental disorder (Schnyder et al, 2018). H Schizophrenia is more likely attributed to a biological model than depression (Angermeyer et al, 2015;Dietrich et al, 2004;Von Lersner et al, 2019). I Depression is more often correctly labelled than schizophrenia (Furnham et al, 2009;Jorm et al, 1997) BEAR study and the add-on study.…”

“…As part of MHL-improving campaigns, biological factors have frequently been emphasized as a cause of mental illness, in particular depression or schizophrenia (Pescosolido et al, 2010;Schomerus et al, 2012). Some studies also found that people were more likely to attribute schizophrenia to biological causal factors rather than depression (Angermeyer et al, 2015;Dietrich et al, 2004;Von Lersner et al, 2019). While the resulting higher endorsement of a biological model decreased the perception of psychiatric patients as responsible and blameworthy for their problems (Kvaale et al, 2013;Lebowitz & Appelbaum, 2017), it also increased prognostic pessimism, and the perceived unpredictability and dangerousness, i.e., negative stereotypes (Haslam, 2015).…”

Religiosity and stigma toward patients with mental illness among undergraduate university students

“…In addition, stigma against patients with mental illnesses resulted in social isolation and avoidance to seeking mental care services ( Von Lersner et al., 2019 ). Stigma against patient with mental illness is widespread and patients were blamed for being diagnosed with mental illness, avoided mental care services, and experienced both physical and emotional violence by others ( WHO, 2017 ).…”

Disadvantaged Individuals: Stigma as a Source of Entrepreneurial Motivation to Thrive

“…In this paper, we synonymy use stigmatized individuals as disadvantaged ones because the disadvantage of an individual makes them vulnerable to stigma. For instance, unemployment (Dougherty, Rick, & Moore, 2017;Staiger et al, 2018), health-related issues and psychological disorder (Chan, Lee, & Mak, 2018;Crowe, Averett, & Glass, 2016;Stangl et al, 2019), disability (Bogart, Rosa, & Slepian, 2019), and immigration (Nevin et al, 2018;Von Lersner, 2019). In addition to this, women were considered disadvantaged based on their gender that restricts them to access entrepreneurial resources (Fischer, Reuber, & Dyke, 1993;Marlow & Patton, 2005).…”