Shirlene Pang|Jianlin Liu|Mithila Mahesh|Boon Yiang Chua|Shazana Shahwan|Siau Pheng Lee|Janhavi Ajit Vaingankar|Edimansyah Abdin|Daniel Fung|Siow Ann Chong|Mythily Subramaniam
Stigma among Singaporean youth: a cross-sectional study on adolescent attitudes towards serious mental illness and social tolerance in a multiethnic population
Institute of Mental Health|Institute of Mental Health|Institute of Mental Health|Institute of Mental Health|Institute of Mental Health|Institute of Mental Health|Institute of Mental Health|Institute of Mental Health|Institute of Mental Health|Institute of Mental Health|Institute of Mental Health
stigma mental illnesses one significant obstacles faced mental health service users providers develop young age also influenced culture youths southeast asian countries underrepresented mental health research thus study aims explore dimensions stigma social tolerance examine correlates younger multiethnic population singaporean online survey collected data sociodemographic questions attitudes towards serious mental illness adolescent version scale social tolerance scale opentext question words phrases participants associated term mental illness principal component analysis multiple regression models conducted investigate factor structure attitudes social tolerance scales sociodemographic correlatesparticipants included 940 youths aged 1418 years old residing singapore time survey recruited local schoolsabout quarter students 226 reported participating mental health awareness campaigns nearly half 445 associated pejorative words phrases term mental illness attitudes towards serious mental illness adolescent version scale yielded five factors social tolerance scale yielded two ethnicity gender nationality significantly correlated factors scales chinese youths showed higher sense physical threat lower social tolerance ethnicities females showed wishful thinking social concern social responsibility towards mentally ill malesthe dimensions stigma social tolerance different asian cultures compared western cultures sociodemographic differences attitudes towards mentally ill found among youths living singapore misconceptions negative attitudes towards mental illness common demonstrating clear need effective stigma reduction campaigns