Does Gender Influence Mental Illness Stigma and Help Seeking Attitude in Adolescent Population?

Abstract

Negative attitude towards health lead to mental illness and lowers the attitude to mental health. Previous research suggest that gender influence attitude towards mental illness and mental health. Hence the present study was conducted to compare mental illness stigma and help seeking attitude in gender basis. For the present study, 100 college going participants were assessed for the Mental Illness Stigma Scale and Inventory of Attitudes Towards seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS). The variables were compared between male and females. Results reported that females have higher mental stigma in comparison to males. Significant differences were found for men indicating an increase in psychological help seeking with an increase in stigma. No differences were found for females, though. However, overall no association was found between mental illness stigma and attitude seeking psychological help in the total sample under present study.