More Than Mental Illness: Experiences of Associating with Stigma of Mental Illness for Chinese College Students

From existing empirical research, we identified that Chinese college students commonly experience stigma surrounding mental illness and found some factors that support them in resisting the stigma and achieving psychological health. However, less research provides qualitative data involving individual experiences and insights on mental illness within this group of college students. This study, based on ACE-LYNX (an internationally cooperative research-sharing project between China and Canada), was conducted in Shandong, Jinan, and aims to promote the mental health of college students by empowering interdisciplinary professionals and students. Through the research project, this study analyzed the materials from 24 focus groups, explored the understanding of mental illness and prevalence of mental illness stigma in Chinese colleges at the present time, administered a background questionnaire, and provided statistical support for some revealed themes. The final themes are as follows: mental illness is stereotyped as “severe, pathetic, and complicated”; the misconception of “visiting a psychological counselor is scary”; from public stigma to self-stigma; barriers deterring students from seeking help or accessing services; two sides of the same coin: peer support versus peer pressure.

Rumor Has it: “Dementia” A Discourse-Analytical Analysis of Obituaries of People With Dementia

Despite the increasing incidence of the condition, people with dementia face a double stigma: ageism and the stigma of mental illness. The stigmatization of the condition has negative consequences, and can even lead to self-stigmatization. To develop adequate education programs to overcome the harmful stigma, the degree and the characteristics of that stigmatization have to be identified. In this study, the content and the language of obituaries of well-known people with dementia are analyzed using a qualitative bottom-up approach. If mentioned, the dementia receives little attention and the information given does not exceed common knowledge. Euphemistic language such as metaphors is introduced not to circumvent the condition, but to palliate its degressive nature.

Linguistic Markers in Individuals With Symptoms of Depression in Bi-Multilingual Context

Depression has been identified as the most prevalent mental disorder worldwide. Due to the stigma of mental illness, the population remains unidentified, undiagnosed, and untreated. Various studies have been carried out to detect and track depression following symptoms of dichotomous thinking, absolutist thinking, linguistic markers, and linguistic behavior. However, there is little study focused on the linguistic behavior of bilingual and multilingual with anxiety and depression. This chapter aims to identify the bi-multilingual linguistic markers by analyzing the recorded verbal content of depressive discourse resulting from life situations and stressors causing anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. Different contextual domains of word usage, content words, function words (pronouns), and negative valance words have been identified as indicators of psychological process affecting cognitive behavior, emotional health, and mental illness. These findings are discussed within the framework of Beck's model of depression to support the linguistic connection to mental illness-depression.

Estigma internalizado en personas con trastorno mental, residentes de hogar protegido con rehabilitación de base comunitaria (primer semestre de 2019)

El estigma hace referencia a las actitudes y creencias que conducen a las personas a rechazar, evitar y temer a aquellos a quienes perciben como diferentes; por su parte, el estigma internalizado hace referencia a aquel que es orientado hacia sí mismo En este sentido, el objetivo de la presente investigación es determinar el nivel de estigma internalizado en personas con trastorno mental (tm), residentes de un hogar protegido con rehabilitación de base comunitaria, durante el primer semestre de 2019. Para la metodología, se realizó un estudio observacional y descriptivo, de enfoque cuantitativo; además, se utilizaron dos instrumentos: una encuesta de caracterización sociodemográfica de la persona con alteración mental y la aplicación de la escala de autoestigma de la enfermedad Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale (ismi) (Tanabe et ál., 2016). Los resultados obtenidos arrojan que las cuatro mediciones permiten verificar que hay un 62,5 % de percepción de estigma y discriminación. A su vez, puntúa la resistencia al estigma en un 70 %, pues se muestra que puede existir una adaptación social en el dispositivo de rehabilitación de base comunitaria que es capaz de contrarrestar el estigma social y evitar que sea internalizarlo en los integrantes de la comunidad. Se concluye que es evidente que existe una alta percepción de alienación, estigma y discriminación, no solo en el ámbito social, que es en el que más se ve este rechazo así como en el mismo aislamiento del paciente, sino a nivel familiar y laboral. Gracias a las practicas comunitarias, la comunidad ha construido mecanismos basados en procesos de pensamiento crítico y entendimiento, que permiten afrontar el estigma social y no lo internalizan.

Psychological Inflexibility in People with Chronic Psychosis: The Mediating Role of Self-Stigma and Social Functioning

Psychosis is associated with self-stigmatization and loss of social functioning that increase the severity of the disorder. Psychological inflexibility (PI)—an individual’s tendency to suppress undesirable private events—plays a fundamental role in the emergence and worst prognosis of psychosis. The main objective of this study was to analyze whether self-stigma and social functioning mediate the association of PI with the severity of psychosis in adults with chronic schizophrenia. The study was carried out with a sample of 103 outpatients. The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire, the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale, and the Social Functioning Scale were used for clinical assessments. Data analyses were performed by using the PROCESS macro for SPSS. Results showed that the link between PI and the severity of psychosis is not direct, but is better explained by mediation of the self-stigma and social functioning of those assessed. PI also predicts worse social functioning without the need to take self-stigma into account. Moreover, self-stigma alone does not predict the severity of psychotic symptoms; this relationship has to be mediated by social functioning. These findings suggest that interventions designed to increase psychological flexibility, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), may offer an alternative to attenuate the negative impact of self-stigma and to improve the social functioning.

Affiliate stigma of mental illness in family caregivers of persons with mental illness in Hong Kong

Background: Affiliate stigma of family caregivers may severely influence family caregiving, early treatment, and recovery of people with mental illness (PMI), and it may be impacted by the knowledge of mental illness and contact with PMI. However, little is known about the correlation between affiliate stigma of family caregivers of PMI and contact in Hong Kong. Aims: This study aimed to investigate affiliate stigma and its influencing factors among family caregivers of PMI in Hong Kong. Methods: A total of 106 family caregivers in Hong Kong participated in the study. The measurements included affiliate stigma, contacts (quantity, quality, and level), knowledge, prejudice, and discriminatory behaviors. Multiple regression analyses were employed. Results: The mean score of affiliate stigma scale (ASS) in family caregivers was 2.17 ( SD = 0.65). In regression analyses, the results showed that contact quantity and contact level were significantly associated with higher affiliate stigma and its cognitive domain, while contact quality (e.g. positive contact) were significantly associated with lower affiliate stigma and its all domains among family caregivers. The positive relationship between prejudicial attitudes and affiliate stigma was also found. Conclusions: Affiliate stigma is severe among family caregivers of PMI in Hong Kong. The results of this study indicate that contact, especially positive contact, contributes to reducing affiliate stigma among family caregivers of PMI. The results of this study are important for development of health policy on reducing stigma in family caregivers of PMI. The effectiveness of Enhancing Contact Model (ECM) should be examined in future anti-stigma interventions.

Training of Healthcare Professionals in Dealing with the Stigma of Mental Illness

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Reliability and Validity of the Chinese Version of the Scale for Assessing the Stigma of Mental Illness in Nursing

Background: The prevalence of mental illness continues to increase in China, but research on stigma is still in its infancy, and there are even fewer studies on stigma among nurses. A comprehensive, effective and reliable tool is needed to assess stigma in nursing so that it can be reduced or eliminated to improve nursing quality. This study aimed to translate a 20-item scale for assessing the stigma of mental illness in nursing into Chinese and evaluate its reliability and validity.Methods: An improved Brislin translation model was used to translate the nursing mental illness stigma assessment scale into Chinese. Content and face validity were determined by a panel of experts. A convenience sample of 501 nursing students was chosen. Confirmatory factor analysis, concurrent validity and known group comparison were used to evaluate the scale's structural validity. The reliability was evaluated based on the internal consistency reliability and 2-week retest reliability.Results: The content validity index was 0.90. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that this study supported the three-factor model. The moderate correlation between the Chinese version of the Scale for Assessing the Stigma of Mental Illness in Nursing and the Perceived Devaluation Discrimination Scale suggested acceptable concurrent validity. Cronbach's α (0.863) and the retest coefficient (0.839) were indicative of internal consistency.Conclusion: The Chinese version of the Scale for Assessing the Stigma of Mental Illness in Nursing has acceptable concurrent validity, marginal factor validity, and satisfactory reliability in China. Therefore, the three-factor structure of the Chinese scale should be considered.Relevance to Clinical Practice: The Chinese version of the Scale for Assessing the Stigma of Mental Illness in Nursing can be used to understand the degree of mental illness stigma in nursing.