Examining the link between socioeconomic status and mental illness prejudice: The roles of knowledge about mental illness and empathy.

Abstract

Unlike people suffering from most physical afflictions, those with mental illness often face prejudice. This study examines the interplay of several key social and personal predictors of mental illness prejudice: SES, empathy, mental illness knowledge, and personal acquaintance with the mentally ill. As expected, analyses showed that higher subjective (although not objective) SES, lower levels of empathy, and lower levels of knowledge about mental illness all predicted increased prejudice against people suffering from clinical depression and nondescript mental illness—although not against people suffering from schizophrenia. Path analyses showed evidence for a mediating role of knowledge and empathy in the link between SES and prejudice. Implications of these findings for ways to diffuse mental illness prejudice are discussed.

Development and Validation of the Japanese-Translated Version of the Multiple-Choice Questionnaire of Depression Literacy (MCQ-DL)

“…As indicated by Jorm (2012), mental health literacy includes skill in recognizing the early signs of mental health problems and others' depressive moods and in expressing their empathic concerns. Foster et al (2018) also showed that the short version of the MCQ-DL (Gabriel & Violato, 2009) was positively correlated with participants' empathy levels. We therefore anticipated that both the full-item and short versions of the Japanese-translated MCQ-DL should exhibit significant positive correlations with components of empathy.…”

“…Previous studies frequently showed that stigmatizing attitudes toward depression can be reduced by educational programs and contents aimed at improving depression literacy (Finkelstein & Lapshin, 2007;Griffiths, Christensen, Jorm, Evans, & Groves, 2004;Griffiths et al, 2006;Kashihara, 2015;Kashihara & Sakamoto, 2018;Rusch, Kanter, & Brondino, 2009). In addition, Foster et al (2018) showed that the short version of the MCQ-DL (Gabriel & Violato, 2009) was negatively correlated with stigma of depression. We therefore anticipated that both the full-item and short versions of the MCQ-DL should exhibit significant negative correlations with stigmatizing attitudes toward depression.…”

“…Moreover, it has been revealed that this questionnaire is usable in multivariate analyses. Foster, Elischberger, and Hill (2018), for example, picked 10 items from the questionnaire 1 and showed that depression literacy mediates the relationship between socioeconomic status and stigmatizing attitudes toward depression.…”

“…The present study, therefore, developed a Japanese-translated version of the MCQ-DL (Gabriel & Violato, 2009) and conducted initial validation of the measure. We also examined whether the 10-item version adopted by Foster et al (2018) has similar psychometric properties to the full 27-item measure. We expected the short version would be easily incorporated into the evaluation studies of educational programs regarding depression in Japan, including those focusing on stigma reduction (e.g., Kashihara, 2015;Kashihara & Sakamoto, 2018) and the promotion of helping behaviors toward people with mental health problems (Hashimoto et al, 2016;Kato et al, 2010;Suzuki et al, 2014).…”

Emotional Empathy, Social Distance and Attitude of Police Officers towards People with Mental Illness

“…Empathy involves emotion and cognition and it is theorised in different ways. Foster, Elischberger and Hill (2017) suggested that an intervention approach would be very effective if empathic understanding is being encouraged. They further state that the inducing of empathy has assisted in reducing stigma projected at members of stigmatized group.…”