Stigma towards mental illness in med students: you label me, I label you?
Introduction Evidence suggests that besides having stigmatizing misconceptions towards people with mental illness, medical students and doctors often resist seeking help for their own mental issues. This is a vulnerable group for stress and other mental health problems, due not only to professional...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
2022-06-01
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| Series: | European Psychiatry |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0924933822009002/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1797616349864787968 |
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| author | C. Cabacos A.T. Pereira M. Carneiro F. Carvalho A. Manão A. Araújo D. Pereira A. Macedo |
| author_facet | C. Cabacos A.T. Pereira M. Carneiro F. Carvalho A. Manão A. Araújo D. Pereira A. Macedo |
| author_sort | C. Cabacos |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Introduction
Evidence suggests that besides having stigmatizing misconceptions towards people with mental illness, medical students and doctors often resist seeking help for their own mental issues. This is a vulnerable group for stress and other mental health problems, due not only to professional burden but also high perfectionism and low self-compassion.
Objectives
To analyse the relationship between mental health stigma (MHS) and other variables related to personality and emotional states in a sample of medical students.
Methods
634 medicine and dentistry students (mean age = 21.6±6.9;81.4% female) answered to a survey including sociodemographic data, self-perception of psychological health/SPPH and the Portuguese validated versions of: Link’s Perceived Discrimination and Devaluation (PDD) scale to assess MHS and its two dimensions - social stigma/SocS and self-stigma/SelS; Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21); Neff’s Self-Compassion Scale (SCS); and Big Three Perfectionism Scale (BTPS). Correlations, t-student tests and linear regressions were performed with SPSS 27.0.
Results
Stigma correlated negatively to SPPH and positively to DASS, the negative poles of SCS (self-judgement, isolation and over-identification) and BTPS second-order factors (all from p<.05 to p<.01). No gender differences in MHS were observed. Participants with higher mean levels of total and SelS had significantly higher scores in all DASS dimensions and lower SPPH; participants with higher SocS also scored higher in DASS, but didn’t reveal lower SPPH. Isolation was a significant predictor of SocS (R2=2.8%;p<.05); isolation and narcissistic perfectionism were significant predictors of SelS (R2=11%;p<.01).
Conclusions
Our results highlight the importance of including MHS as a main need in the curricula of future doctors.
Disclosure
No significant relationships.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T07:39:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-187dd8ecd296479da425a3c3bbf5210d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0924-9338 1778-3585 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T07:39:45Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Psychiatry |
| spelling | doaj.art-187dd8ecd296479da425a3c3bbf5210d2023-11-17T05:08:44ZengCambridge University PressEuropean Psychiatry0924-93381778-35852022-06-0165S354S35410.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.900Stigma towards mental illness in med students: you label me, I label you?C. Cabacos0A.T. Pereira1M. Carneiro2F. Carvalho3A. Manão4A. Araújo5D. Pereira6A. Macedo7Faculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra, Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Coimbra, PortugalFaculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra, Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Coimbra, PortugalFaculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra, Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Coimbra, PortugalFaculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra, Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Coimbra, PortugalFaculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra, Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Coimbra, PortugalFaculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra, Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Coimbra, PortugalFaculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra, Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Coimbra, PortugalFaculty of Medicine of University of Coimbra, Institute Of Psychological Medicine, Coimbra, Portugal Introduction Evidence suggests that besides having stigmatizing misconceptions towards people with mental illness, medical students and doctors often resist seeking help for their own mental issues. This is a vulnerable group for stress and other mental health problems, due not only to professional burden but also high perfectionism and low self-compassion. Objectives To analyse the relationship between mental health stigma (MHS) and other variables related to personality and emotional states in a sample of medical students. Methods 634 medicine and dentistry students (mean age = 21.6±6.9;81.4% female) answered to a survey including sociodemographic data, self-perception of psychological health/SPPH and the Portuguese validated versions of: Link’s Perceived Discrimination and Devaluation (PDD) scale to assess MHS and its two dimensions - social stigma/SocS and self-stigma/SelS; Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21); Neff’s Self-Compassion Scale (SCS); and Big Three Perfectionism Scale (BTPS). Correlations, t-student tests and linear regressions were performed with SPSS 27.0. Results Stigma correlated negatively to SPPH and positively to DASS, the negative poles of SCS (self-judgement, isolation and over-identification) and BTPS second-order factors (all from p<.05 to p<.01). No gender differences in MHS were observed. Participants with higher mean levels of total and SelS had significantly higher scores in all DASS dimensions and lower SPPH; participants with higher SocS also scored higher in DASS, but didn’t reveal lower SPPH. Isolation was a significant predictor of SocS (R2=2.8%;p<.05); isolation and narcissistic perfectionism were significant predictors of SelS (R2=11%;p<.01). Conclusions Our results highlight the importance of including MHS as a main need in the curricula of future doctors. Disclosure No significant relationships. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0924933822009002/type/journal_articleMental Health Stigmapsychological distressperfectionism |
| spellingShingle | C. Cabacos A.T. Pereira M. Carneiro F. Carvalho A. Manão A. Araújo D. Pereira A. Macedo Stigma towards mental illness in med students: you label me, I label you? European Psychiatry Mental Health Stigma psychological distress perfectionism |
| title | Stigma towards mental illness in med students: you label me, I label you? |
| title_full | Stigma towards mental illness in med students: you label me, I label you? |
| title_fullStr | Stigma towards mental illness in med students: you label me, I label you? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Stigma towards mental illness in med students: you label me, I label you? |
| title_short | Stigma towards mental illness in med students: you label me, I label you? |
| title_sort | stigma towards mental illness in med students you label me i label you |
| topic | Mental Health Stigma psychological distress perfectionism |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0924933822009002/type/journal_article |
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