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Etiological Beliefs, Treatments, Stigmatizing Attitudes toward Schizophrenia. What Do Italians and Israelis Think?
Background: Although scientific research on the etiology of mental disorders has improved the knowledge of biogenetic and psychosocial aspects related to the onset of mental illness, stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors are still very prevalent and pose a significant social problem. Aim: The aim of...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5767229/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29375422 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02289 |
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author | Mannarini, Stefania Boffo, Marilisa Rossi, Alessandro Balottin, Laura |
author_facet | Mannarini, Stefania Boffo, Marilisa Rossi, Alessandro Balottin, Laura |
author_sort | Mannarini, Stefania |
collection | PubMed |
description | Background: Although scientific research on the etiology of mental disorders has improved the knowledge of biogenetic and psychosocial aspects related to the onset of mental illness, stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors are still very prevalent and pose a significant social problem. Aim: The aim of this study was to deepen the knowledge of how attitudes toward people with mental illness are affected by specific personal beliefs and characteristics, such as culture and religion of the perceiver. More precisely, the main purpose is the definition of a structure of variables, namely perceived dangerousness, social closeness, and avoidance of the ill person, together with the beliefs about the best treatment to be undertaken and the sick person’ gender, capable of describing the complexity of the stigma construct in particular as far as schizophrenia is concerned. Method: The study involved 305 university students, 183 from the University of Padua, Italy, and 122 from the University of Haifa, Israel. For the analyses, a latent class analysis (LCA) approach was chosen to identify a latent categorical structure accounting for the covariance between the observed variables. Such a latent structure was expected to be moderated by cultural background (Italy versus Israel) and religious beliefs, whereas causal beliefs, recommended treatment, dangerousness, social closeness, and public avoidance were the manifest variables, namely the observed indicators of the latent variable. Results: Two sets of results were obtained. First, the relevance of the manifest variables as indicators of the hypothesized latent variable was highlighted. Second, a two-latent-class categorical dimension represented by prejudicial attitudes, causal beliefs, and treatments concerning schizophrenia was found. Specifically, the differential effects of the two cultures and the religious beliefs on the latent structure and their relations highlighted the relevance of the observed variables as indicators of the expected latent variable. Conclusion: The present study contributes to the improvement of the understanding of how attitudes toward people with mental illness are affected by specific personal beliefs and characteristics of the perceiver. The definition of a structure of variables capable of describing the complexity of the stigma construct in particular as far as schizophrenia is concerned was achieved from a cross-cultural perspective. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5767229 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-57672292018-01-26 Etiological Beliefs, Treatments, Stigmatizing Attitudes toward Schizophrenia. What Do Italians and Israelis Think? Mannarini, Stefania Boffo, Marilisa Rossi, Alessandro Balottin, Laura Front Psychol Psychology Background: Although scientific research on the etiology of mental disorders has improved the knowledge of biogenetic and psychosocial aspects related to the onset of mental illness, stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors are still very prevalent and pose a significant social problem. Aim: The aim of this study was to deepen the knowledge of how attitudes toward people with mental illness are affected by specific personal beliefs and characteristics, such as culture and religion of the perceiver. More precisely, the main purpose is the definition of a structure of variables, namely perceived dangerousness, social closeness, and avoidance of the ill person, together with the beliefs about the best treatment to be undertaken and the sick person’ gender, capable of describing the complexity of the stigma construct in particular as far as schizophrenia is concerned. Method: The study involved 305 university students, 183 from the University of Padua, Italy, and 122 from the University of Haifa, Israel. For the analyses, a latent class analysis (LCA) approach was chosen to identify a latent categorical structure accounting for the covariance between the observed variables. Such a latent structure was expected to be moderated by cultural background (Italy versus Israel) and religious beliefs, whereas causal beliefs, recommended treatment, dangerousness, social closeness, and public avoidance were the manifest variables, namely the observed indicators of the latent variable. Results: Two sets of results were obtained. First, the relevance of the manifest variables as indicators of the hypothesized latent variable was highlighted. Second, a two-latent-class categorical dimension represented by prejudicial attitudes, causal beliefs, and treatments concerning schizophrenia was found. Specifically, the differential effects of the two cultures and the religious beliefs on the latent structure and their relations highlighted the relevance of the observed variables as indicators of the expected latent variable. Conclusion: The present study contributes to the improvement of the understanding of how attitudes toward people with mental illness are affected by specific personal beliefs and characteristics of the perceiver. The definition of a structure of variables capable of describing the complexity of the stigma construct in particular as far as schizophrenia is concerned was achieved from a cross-cultural perspective. Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-01-09 /pmc/articles/PMC5767229/ /pubmed/29375422 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02289 Text en Copyright © 2018 Mannarini, Boffo, Rossi and Balottin. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Mannarini, Stefania Boffo, Marilisa Rossi, Alessandro Balottin, Laura Etiological Beliefs, Treatments, Stigmatizing Attitudes toward Schizophrenia. What Do Italians and Israelis Think? |
title | Etiological Beliefs, Treatments, Stigmatizing Attitudes toward Schizophrenia. What Do Italians and Israelis Think? |
title_full | Etiological Beliefs, Treatments, Stigmatizing Attitudes toward Schizophrenia. What Do Italians and Israelis Think? |
title_fullStr | Etiological Beliefs, Treatments, Stigmatizing Attitudes toward Schizophrenia. What Do Italians and Israelis Think? |
title_full_unstemmed | Etiological Beliefs, Treatments, Stigmatizing Attitudes toward Schizophrenia. What Do Italians and Israelis Think? |
title_short | Etiological Beliefs, Treatments, Stigmatizing Attitudes toward Schizophrenia. What Do Italians and Israelis Think? |
title_sort | etiological beliefs, treatments, stigmatizing attitudes toward schizophrenia. what do italians and israelis think? |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5767229/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29375422 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02289 |
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