Mental illness and Singapore society : understanding illness narratives of Singaporean youths with mental illness

Mental illness is largely stigmatised in Singapore. In recent years, rising statistics showing mental illness amongst Singaporean youths has been a concern. This paper investigates youths’ illness experience, particularly how they navigate stigma and come to make sense of their identity as an aff...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Chan, Jun Ren
Other Authors: Jung Jong Hyun
Format: Final Year Project (FYP)
Language:English
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/76439
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author Chan, Jun Ren
author2 Jung Jong Hyun
author_facet Jung Jong Hyun
Chan, Jun Ren
author_sort Chan, Jun Ren
collection NTU
description Mental illness is largely stigmatised in Singapore. In recent years, rising statistics showing mental illness amongst Singaporean youths has been a concern. This paper investigates youths’ illness experience, particularly how they navigate stigma and come to make sense of their identity as an afflicted individual. Adopting the stress process framework and illness narratives as the conceptual framework, this study takes the perspectives of 10 mental health professionals who have worked with afflicted youths. The findings indicate that, as a result of socialisation experiences, youths often turn to negative coping behaviours to navigate stigma. Such coping strategies further entrench their deviantized identity and have longer-term consequences. Findings also showed that illness meanings change over time as youths constantly construct understandings from their interaction with society as an afflicted individual. This study highlights the effects of stigma on afflicted youths’ individual lives and proposes ways for policy and programme intervention.
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spelling ntu-10356/764392019-12-10T12:08:34Z Mental illness and Singapore society : understanding illness narratives of Singaporean youths with mental illness Chan, Jun Ren Jung Jong Hyun School of Social Sciences DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology Mental illness is largely stigmatised in Singapore. In recent years, rising statistics showing mental illness amongst Singaporean youths has been a concern. This paper investigates youths’ illness experience, particularly how they navigate stigma and come to make sense of their identity as an afflicted individual. Adopting the stress process framework and illness narratives as the conceptual framework, this study takes the perspectives of 10 mental health professionals who have worked with afflicted youths. The findings indicate that, as a result of socialisation experiences, youths often turn to negative coping behaviours to navigate stigma. Such coping strategies further entrench their deviantized identity and have longer-term consequences. Findings also showed that illness meanings change over time as youths constantly construct understandings from their interaction with society as an afflicted individual. This study highlights the effects of stigma on afflicted youths’ individual lives and proposes ways for policy and programme intervention. Bachelor of Arts in Sociology 2019-03-05T13:29:39Z 2019-03-05T13:29:39Z 2019 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/76439 en 36 p. application/pdf
spellingShingle DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology
Chan, Jun Ren
Mental illness and Singapore society : understanding illness narratives of Singaporean youths with mental illness
title Mental illness and Singapore society : understanding illness narratives of Singaporean youths with mental illness
title_full Mental illness and Singapore society : understanding illness narratives of Singaporean youths with mental illness
title_fullStr Mental illness and Singapore society : understanding illness narratives of Singaporean youths with mental illness
title_full_unstemmed Mental illness and Singapore society : understanding illness narratives of Singaporean youths with mental illness
title_short Mental illness and Singapore society : understanding illness narratives of Singaporean youths with mental illness
title_sort mental illness and singapore society understanding illness narratives of singaporean youths with mental illness
topic DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/76439
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