Cultural Differences in Psychosis: The Role of Causal Beliefs and Stigma in White British and South Asians

Abstract

, A. (accepted). Cultural differences in psychosis: The role of causal beliefs and stigma in White British and South Asians. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.

Stigma towards psychosis: Cross‐cultural differences in prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination in White British and South Asians

“…This study, a student project, was part of a larger research project that involved two students with different research questions and different dependent measures. Therefore, other measures were administered, which were not part of the present investigation (seeMirza et al, 2019).2 When including the full sample, analyses yielded similar results: In the analyses of covariance, South Asians (vs. White British) reported significantly higher levels of anger, F(1, 168) = 8.89, p = . 003, η2 = .05 (H1), and avoidance, F(1, 168) = 7.61, p = .006, η2 = .04 (H3), and significantly lower helping intentions, F(1, 168) = 13.70, p < .001, η2 = .08 (H3); danger, F(1, 168) = 2.84, p = .094, η2 = .02 (H2) and segregation, F(1, 168) = 2.43, p = .121, η2 = .01 (H3), showed a trend to be higher for South Asians.…”

“…However, cross‐cultural differences exist when it comes to mental health causal beliefs, which can influence the willingness to seek help. Spiritual and supernatural explanations are commonly held by South Asians regarding the causes of psychosis, including the will of God, karmic retribution, and evil eye (Kulhara, Avasthi, & Sharma, ; Mirza et al, ). South Asians are more likely to seek help from informal services, including religious leaders, prayer, and God as first ports of call (Conrad & Pacquiao, ).…”

“…This means that in Asian cultures, mental health is somaticized and medicalized, that is, there is a tendency to experience psychological symptoms as somatic symptoms and to focus on medical instead of psychological help. Additionally, explanations for mental health problems are reported to be different (Lauber & Rössler, 2007;Mirza, Birtel, Pyle, & Morrison, 2019).…”

Stigma of mental illness and cultural factors in Pacific Rim region: a systematic review

“…According to the results of studies reviewed [ 12 , 19 , 23 , 34 , 39 , 51 ], persons with mental illness usually were labelled as dangerous, weak, strange, incompetent and blameworthy. The perception that persons with mental illness behave violently was considered as a major reason for general public displaying stigmatizing behaviors and attitudes toward persons with mental illness.…”

“…Numerously previous studies ignore cultural and ethnic differences with regard to stigma [ 12 ]. There are few investigations of stigma of mental illness within the Pacific Rim region, an area of significant variance, including culture, religion, values, and mental health care systems [ 13 ].…”