IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v73y2011i4p498-506.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labeling of mental disorders and stigma in young people

Author

Listed:
  • Wright, Annemarie
  • Jorm, Anthony F.
  • Mackinnon, Andrew J.

Abstract

Mental disorders are common in young people, yet many do not seek help. The use of psychiatric labels to describe mental disorders is associated with effective help-seeking choices, and is promoted in community awareness initiatives designed to improve help-seeking. However these labels may also be coupled with stigmatizing beliefs and therefore inhibit help-seeking: lay mental health or non-specific labels may be less harmful. We examined the association between labeling of mental disorders and stigma in youth using data from a national telephone survey of 2802 Australians aged 12-25 years conducted from June 2006 to August 2006. Label use and stigmatizing beliefs were assessed in response to vignettes of a young person experiencing depression, psychosis or social phobia. Logistic regressions examined the association between a range of labels commonly used, including psychiatric labels, and a range of stigma components. There were no significant associations between label use and the stigma components of "stigma perceived in others", "reluctance to disclose" and for the most part "social distance". Most mental health labels were associated with seeing the person as "sick" rather than "weak" and accurate psychiatric labels had the strongest effect sizes. However, for the psychosis vignette, the "dangerous/unpredictable" component was predicted by the labels "schizophrenia/psychosis", "mental illness" and "psychological problem", and the accurate psychiatric label showed the strongest association. For all vignettes, generic lay labels were not associated with stigma, but also rarely had a counter stigma effect. These findings suggest that the use of accurate psychiatric labels by young people is seldom associated with stigma and may assist young people by reducing perceptions of weakness. However, community education that promotes accurate labeling of psychosis should proceed with caution and address beliefs about dangerousness and unpredictability.

Suggested Citation

  • Wright, Annemarie & Jorm, Anthony F. & Mackinnon, Andrew J., 2011. "Labeling of mental disorders and stigma in young people," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(4), pages 498-506, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:73:y:2011:i:4:p:498-506
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953611003716
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Moses, Tally, 2009. "Self-labeling and its effects among adolescents diagnosed with mental disorders," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 570-578, February.
    2. Yang, Lawrence Hsin & Kleinman, Arthur & Link, Bruce G. & Phelan, Jo C. & Lee, Sing & Good, Byron, 2007. "Culture and stigma: Adding moral experience to stigma theory," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(7), pages 1524-1535, April.
    3. Link, B.G. & Phelan, J.C. & Bresnahan, M. & Stueve, A. & Pescosolido, B.A., 1999. "Public conceptions of mental illness: Labels, causes, dangerousness, and social distance," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(9), pages 1328-1333.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Villatoro, Alice P. & DuPont-Reyes, Melissa J. & Phelan, Jo C. & Painter, Kirstin & Link, Bruce G., 2018. "Parental recognition of preadolescent mental health problems: Does stigma matter?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 88-96.
    2. Judith Gonschor & Maarten C Eisma & Antonia Barke & Bettina K Doering, 2020. "Public stigma towards prolonged grief disorder: Does diagnostic labeling matter?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-20, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang, Lawrence H. & Purdie-Vaughns, Valerie & Kotabe, Hiroki & Link, Bruce G. & Saw, Anne & Wong, Gloria & Phelan, Jo C., 2013. "Culture, threat, and mental illness stigma: Identifying culture-specific threat among Chinese-American groups," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 56-67.
    2. Jacobs, Susan & Quinn, Joseph, 2022. "Cultural reproduction of mental illness stigma and stereotypes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    3. Song, Jieun & Mailick, Marsha R. & Greenberg, Jan S., 2018. "Health of parents of individuals with developmental disorders or mental health problems: Impacts of stigma," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 152-158.
    4. Jong Won Min, 2019. "The Influence of Stigma and Views on Mental Health Treatment Effectiveness on Service Use by Age and Ethnicity: Evidence From the CDC BRFSS 2007, 2009, and 2012," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(3), pages 21582440198, September.
    5. Omar Hegazi & Samer Alalalmeh & Ahmad Alfaresi & Soheil Dashtinezhad & Ahmed Bahada & Moyad Shahwan & Ammar Abdulrahman Jairoun & Tesleem K. Babalola & Haya Yasin, 2022. "Development, Validation, and Utilization of a Social Media Use and Mental Health Questionnaire among Middle Eastern and Western Adults: A Pilot Study from the UAE," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-18, November.
    6. Kathy Knox & Jasmina Fejzic & Amary Mey & Jane L Fowler & Fiona Kelly & Denise McConnell & Laetitia Hattingh & Amanda J Wheeler, 2014. "Mental health consumer and caregiver perceptions of stigma in Australian community pharmacies," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 60(6), pages 533-543, September.
    7. Katz, Arlene M. & Alegría, Margarita, 2009. "The clinical encounter as local moral world: Shifts of assumptions and transformation in relational context," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 1238-1246, April.
    8. Ben Butlin & Keith Laws & Rebecca Read & Matthew D Broome & Shivani Sharma, 2019. "Concepts of mental disorders in the United Kingdom: Similarities and differences between the lay public and psychiatrists," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(6), pages 507-514, September.
    9. Tomori, Cecilia & Palmquist, Aunchalee E.L. & Dowling, Sally, 2016. "Contested moral landscapes: Negotiating breastfeeding stigma in breastmilk sharing, nighttime breastfeeding, and long-term breastfeeding in the U.S. and the U.K," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 178-185.
    10. Yang, Lawrence Hsin & Kleinman, Arthur, 2008. "'Face' and the embodiment of stigma in China: The cases of schizophrenia and AIDS," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 398-408, August.
    11. Yang, Lawrence H. & Chen, Fang-pei & Sia, Kathleen Janel & Lam, Jonathan & Lam, Katherine & Ngo, Hong & Lee, Sing & Kleinman, Arthur & Good, Byron, 2014. "“What matters most:” A cultural mechanism moderating structural vulnerability and moral experience of mental illness stigma," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 84-93.
    12. Billings, Katie R. & Cort, David A. & Rozario, Tannuja D. & Siegel, Derek P., 2021. "HIV stigma beliefs in context: Country and regional variation in the effects of instrumental stigma beliefs on protective sexual behaviors in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Southern Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    13. Ahmed El Missiry & Marwa Abd El Meguid & Ahmed Abourayah & Marwa El Missiry & Mohamed Hossam & Hussien Elkholy & Afaf H Khalil, 2019. "Rates and profile of victimization in a sample of Egyptian patients with major mental illness," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(3), pages 183-193, May.
    14. Carpiano, Richard M. & Fitz, Nicholas S., 2017. "Public attitudes toward child undervaccination: A randomized experiment on evaluations, stigmatizing orientations, and support for policies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 127-136.
    15. Dobransky, Kerry, 2009. "The good, the bad, and the severely mentally ill: Official and informal labels as organizational resources in community mental health services," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 722-728, September.
    16. Pinto-Foltz, Melissa D. & Logsdon, M. Cynthia & Myers, John A., 2011. "Feasibility, acceptability, and initial efficacy of a knowledge-contact program to reduce mental illness stigma and improve mental health literacy in adolescents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(12), pages 2011-2019, June.
    17. Karine S Nersessova & Tomas Jurcik & Timothy L Hulsey, 2019. "Differences in beliefs and attitudes toward Depression and Schizophrenia in Russia and the United States," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(5), pages 388-398, August.
    18. Johan M. Berlin & Eric D. Carlström, 2015. "Cultural camouflage—a critical study of how artefacts are camouflaged and mental health policy subverted," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 111-126, April.
    19. de Vries, Jantina & Jallow, Muminatou & Williams, Thomas N. & Kwiatkowski, Dominic & Parker, Michael & Fitzpatrick, Raymond, 2012. "Investigating the potential for ethnic group harm in collaborative genomics research in Africa: Is ethnic stigmatisation likely?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(8), pages 1400-1407.
    20. Joseph S DeLuca & John Vaccaro & Jenna Seda & Philip T Yanos, 2018. "Political attitudes as predictors of the multiple dimensions of mental health stigma," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 64(5), pages 459-469, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:73:y:2011:i:4:p:498-506. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.