Factors involved in the formation of attitudes towards those who are mentally ill

Background This research was conducted to examine the prediction that accuracy of particular kinds of knowledge of mental illness would be related to particular attitudes towards people with mental illness. Methods An exploratory study examining attitudes to people suffering from mental illness is presented. A total of 169 participants, with a range of attitudes and knowledge, completed two questionnaires: attitudes were assessed using the Community Attitudes towards the Mentally Ill scale (Taylor and Dear 1981) which yields four attitude factors; knowledge was assessed using a questionnaire devised by Nunnally (1961), which yields ten knowledge factors. Results Multiple regression analyses provided some support for the hypothesis that some areas of knowledge (particularly knowledge concerning guidance and support, and knowledge concerning the role of avoidance of morbid thoughts in mental health) are predictive of specific attitudes, but much of the variance remained unexplained by the predictive knowledge variables. Post hoc analyses revealed that those people who had had personal experience of people with mental illness were generally more positive in their attitudes towards them. Conclusions Selected knowledge factors only accounted for a modest amount of the variance in attitude factor scores. Affective (e.g. fear, revulsion, anxiety) information may explain a greater percentage of variance in attitude factor score. It is suggested that this should be considered in future research and the limitations of the present study are discussed.