Mental health stigma concerns devaluation and disadvantage associated with actual or attributed mental disorders. It can involve stereotypes, prejudice, avoidance and discrimination. These are related but distinguishable outcomes: knowing factual information about a condition does not necessarily determine how someone treats a person associated with it.
Sarah Clement and collaborators compared filmed social contact, live social contact and a lecture condition in a randomized controlled trial with student nurses. They measured attitudes, emotional reactions, intended proximity and knowledge immediately after the intervention and at four-month follow-up. Keeping these measures separate makes clear what a claim of reduced mental health stigma actually refers to.[ref]
Filmed v. live social contact interventions to reduce stigma: randomised controlled trial by Sarah Clement and others. 2012, Methods: three intervention conditions and four primary outcome measures
A stated willingness to interact is evidence about intended behavior, rather than a direct observation of every subsequent interaction. Interpreting an intervention therefore requires its measurement instruments, comparison condition and follow-up interval, not just a single positive summary label.
Articles by others on the same topic
There are currently no matching articles.