There Is a Limit to Your Openness: Mental Illness Stigma Mediates Effects of Individual Traits on Preference for Psychiatry Specialty

Abstract

Objective: The widening gap between the need for mental health professionals and the low percentages of medical students pursuing a psychiatric career urges an examination of how individual traits, stigma attitudes, and related intended behaviors interact to better explain the variance in preferences for psychiatry as a specialty choice. Methods: Participants were second-year, preclinical medical students at Bologna University, Italy. The study consisted in completion of an online questionnaire evaluating preferences for the psychiatry specialty (one single item and a scenario-based response), personality traits (the Big Five Questionnaire), attitudes (Mental Illness for Clinicians’ Attitude scale), behaviors (Reported and Intended Behavior Scale), and fears toward mental illness (questionnaire created ad hoc). Sociodemographic data were also collected. Results: A total of 284 medical students [58.8% female, mean (SD) age 20.47 ± 1.90] completed the questionnaire. Preference for the psychiatry specialty was significantly and positively associated with openness to experience and negatively related with Mental Illness for Clinicians’ Attitude scale and Reported and Intended Behavior Scale. The full-mediation model provided good indices explaining 18% of the variance. Mental illness stigma was strongly and negatively associated with both openness to experience and preference for psychiatry, and the mediation results evidenced a positive and significant effect. Conclusions: Mental illness stigma influences medical students’ choice of psychiatry as a specialty, accounting for the effects of the openness to experience trait. Stigma awareness and reduction programs should be introduced as early as possible in medical education.

Stigma Levels Toward Psychiatric Patients Among Medical Students—A Worldwide Online Survey Across 65 Countries

“…The present results are consistent with earlier reports, in which males revealed a substantially higher degree of stigmatization attitudes than females ( 12 , 15 , 16 , 28 ). This might be connected to the fact that males more often perceive mental illness to be a weakness of a personality than women, who tend to associate the presence of mental illness with traumatic events experienced previously in life ( 29 ).…”

“…Regardless of the increasing demand for mental health professionals, low recruitment for this specialization has been observed worldwide ( 15 ). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there ought to be one psychiatrist for every 10,000 citizens in each country.…”

Importance of the big-five in the future medical specialty preference

“…Persons who score higher on openness (intellect/imagination) are more open-minded and people-oriented. They might be more intellectually curious and experience fewer obstacles to or fear of experiencing close contact with patients [24]. Of the five personality traits, openness (intellect/imagination) is the most consistent trait associated with a specialty preference, as shown in a study by Mullola et al [10].…”

“…Occupational satisfaction and personal interest are important motivating factors in specialty preferences among students who score higher at the openness (intellect/imagination) scale [4]. Openness to experience (intellect/imagination) is the most commonly reported in psychiatrists and medical students with a preference for psychiatry as a future specialty preference [24]. Openness (intellect/imagination) is associated with academic ability and divergent thinking.…”

Impact on public attitudes of a mental health audio tour of the National Gallery in London

“…However, the sample may not be representative of the general population, as it only included individuals who chose to attend a major art gallery. Although the arts appear to be a powerful medium to reduce stigma and stimulate attitude change, arts consumers have been found to have higher openness to experience, a trait associated with lower stigmatizing attitudes (Bachleda & Bennani, 2016 ; Fino et al, 2019 ). In addition, on‐the‐spot recruitment may indicate that participants had a prior interest in mental health, leading to higher baseline awareness of mental health issues.…”