AIM
The purpose of the research study was to explore and to describe stereotypes associated with
serious mental illness and the effects of familiarity on the serious mental illness stigma
process in potential employer informants in the greater Durban area, eThekwini district,
KwaZulu-Natal.
Methods
A quantitative non-experimental cross sectional survey relational research design was used to
describe firstly, the stereotyping and individual discriminatory behavior (desire for social
distance) of potential employers to a person with a SMI, and secondly, the effect of
familiarity and other person variables (culture, age and gender) on the stigma components of
stereotyping, emotional reaction and individual discriminatory behavior (desire for social
distance). The population included potential employers of the SMI person in the greater
Durban area, eThekwini District, KwaZulu-Natal. The target population was all students
enrolled for a part-time management course at two academic institutions in the Durban
central area. Non-randomized, non-probability purposive sampling was used. Demographic
data and four self report tools were compiled into one self report questionnaire to collect data.
Results
The sample was evenly distributed amongst male and female within the various age groups.
All cultural groups were represented but this representation was not a perfect fit with national
or provincial population statistics. Just less than half of the participants (48% n=55), both
genders and across all cultural groups, had intimate and or personal contact with persons with
a serious mental illness. Demographic associations suggest that male participants had greater
perceptions of dangerousness, unpredictability and incompetence and a greater desire for
social distance. The statistical results indicated limited correlations between emotional
reactions and desire for social distance, stigmatizing attitudes and desire for social distance,
and evidence of no significant relationship between familiarity and other components within
the stigmatizing path. Fear was associated with a desire for social distance and with
perceptions of limited potential for recovery. Stigmatizing attitudes were most negative towards persons who had a previous admission to a psychiatric hospital and the least negative
towards 'bipolar mood disorder'. Stigmatising attitudes were recorded for all serious mental
illness labels (including that of bipolar) with 75% of participants scoring closer to the
negative polar adjective of stigmatizing attitude.
Conclusion and Recommendations
In conclusion, the supposed lack of desire for social distance, the dependent variable in this
study, may reflect political policy and current ideology but the strength of the negative
stereotypes suggests that changing policy is easier than changing attitudes. It is suggested that
the stigmatizing stereotype of limited potential for recovery may have more salience in
developing countries such as South African than the developed western world. Limited
potential for recovery has financial and emotional implication within a developing country
and to this extent, desire for social distance and fear are correlated to perceptions of limited
potential for recovery. Recommendations include additional research include measures of
social desirability bias to clarify the relationship between familiarity, emotional reaction and
social distance. Secondly, intervention studies, specifically with potential employers, are
required to obtain empirical data related to the combine effectiveness of disconfirming
information and contact with people with a serious mental illness. Further, that health
departments actively engage in evidence based anti-stigma initiatives. Lastly it is
recommended nursing curricula recognise the importance of student psychiatric nurses
developing a balanced view of mental health care users assigned the serious mental illness
labels through a balanced clinical exposure to recovered, as well as acutely ill mental health
care users. That the new undergraduate nursing degree curricula strengthen content related to
recovery and psychosocial rehabilitation, specifically nursing interventions / strategies to
facilitate rehabilitation in all the areas of study, socialization, community living, and
specifically in the area of work. / Thesis (MN)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/6126 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Smith, A. A. H. |
| Contributors | Middleton, Lyn E. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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