Abstract
There is apparently no country, society, or culture where people with mental illnesses are treated equally to those without such conditions. Mental health stigma, or the devaluation and discrimination expressed towards, and experienced by, people affected by mental health problems, constitutes a global, multifaceted concern.
The importance of recognizing and addressing stigmatization is evident in the negative outcomes it can have on people affected by it. Stigmatization has been shown to have negative impacts on social inclusion and well-being. This can manifest, for example, as an increased risk of victimization and contact with the criminal justice system, abandoning life goals, exclusion from education and employment, and poor access to health care for problems related to both physical and mental health. It may well contribute to the increased risk of sexual and physical abuse experienced by children with disabilities, particularly those with intellectual or mental disabilities.
This chapter addresses stigmatization, exploring theoretical definitions, reviewing the significant public health impacts, and outlining evidence-based approaches to reducing stigma and discrimination in services and policy frameworks.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adler AK, Wahl OF (1998) Children’s beliefs about people labeled mentally ill. Am J Orthopsychiatry 68:321–326
Allport GW (1954) The nature of prejudice. Addison-Wesley, Reading
Clement S, Brohan E, Sayce L et al (2011) Disability hate crime and targeted violence and hostility: a mental health and discrimination perspective. J Ment Health 20:219–225. https://doi.org/10.3109/09638237.2011.579645
Clement S, Schauman O, Graham T et al (2015) What is the impact of mental health-related stigma on help-seeking? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies. Psychol Med 45:11–27. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291714000129
Corrigan PW (2000) Mental health stigma as social attribution: implications for research methods and attitude change. Clin Psychol Sci Pract 7:48–67. https://doi.org/10.1093/clipsy.7.1.48
Corrigan PW (2004) Target-specific stigma change: a strategy for impacting mental illness stigma. Psychiatr Rehabil J 28:113–121. https://doi.org/10.2975/28.2004.113.121
Corrigan PW (2011) Best practices: strategic stigma change (SSC): five principles for social marketing campaigns to reduce stigma. Psychiatr Serv 62:4–6. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.62.8.824
Corrigan PW, Watson AC (2007) How children stigmatize people with mental illness. Int J Soc Psychiatry 53:526–546. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764007078359
Corrigan PW, River LP, Lundin RK et al (2001) Three strategies for changing attributions about severe mental illness. Schizophr Bull 27:187–195. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.schbul.a006865
Corrigan PW, Larson JE, Rüsch N (2009) Self-stigma and the “why try” effect: impact on life goals and evidence-based practices. World Psychiatry 8:75–81. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2051-5545.2009.tb00218.x
Corrigan PW, Morris S, Michaels P et al (2012) Challenging the public stigma of mental illness: a meta-analysis of outcome studies. Psychiatr Serv 63:963–973. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470977507.ch3
Corrigan PW, Druss BG, Perlick DA (2014) The impact of mental illness stigma on seeking and participating in mental health care. Psychol Sci Public Interest 15:37–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100614531398
Couture SM, Penn DL (2003) Interpersonal contact and the stigma of mental illness: a review of the literature. J Ment Health 12:291–305. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638231000118276
Department of Health (2011) No health without mental health. HM Government, London, UK
Desforges DM, Lord CG, Ramsey SL et al (1991) Effects of structured cooperative contact on changing negative attitudes toward stigmatized social groups. J Pers Soc Psychol 60:531–544. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.60.4.531
Eaton J (2018) Human rights-based approaches to mental health legislation and global mental health. BJPsych Int 16:37–40. https://doi.org/10.1192/bji.2018.5
Essler V, Arthur A, Stickley T (2006) Using a school-based intervention to challenge stigmatizing attitudes and promote mental health in teenagers. J Ment Health 15:243–250
Evans-Lacko S, London J, Japhet S et al (2012) Mass social contact interventions and their effect on mental health related stigma and intended discrimination. BMC Public Health 12:489
Gale F (2007) Tackling the stigma of mental health in vulnerable children and young people. In: Vostanis P (ed) Mental health interventions and services for vulnerable children and young people. Jessica Kingsley Publishing, London, UK, pp 58–79
Gissler M, Laursen TM, Oesby U et al (2013) Patterns in mortality among people with severe mental disorders across birth cohorts: a register-based study of Denmark and Finland in 1982–2006. BMC Public Health 13:834. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-834
Goffman E (1963) Stigma: notes on the management of spoiled identity. Simon & Schuster, New York
Hamdani SU, Akhtar P, Zill-e-Huma et al (2017) WHO parents skills training (PST) programme for children with developmental disorders and delays delivered by family volunteers in rural Pakistan: study protocol for effectiveness implementation hybrid cluster randomized controlled trial. Glob Ment Health 13:e11. https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2017.7
Hinshaw SP (2005) The stigmatization of mental illness in children and parents: developmental issues, family concerns, and research needs. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 46:714–734. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2005.01456.x
Kessler R, Berglund P, Demler O (2005) Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry 62:593–602
Kleinman A (1980) Patients and healers in the context of culture: an exploration of the borderland between anthropology, medicine, and psychiatry. University of California Press, Berkeley
Lau K, Ng P, Chan C et al (2011) Announcement of a new Chinese name for epilepsy. Epilepsia 52:420–421. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1528-1167.2010.02748.x
Laursen TM, Munk-Olsen T, Nordentoft M, Mortensen PB (2007) Increased mortality among patients admitted with major psychiatric disorders: a register-based study comparing mortality in unipolar depressive disorder, bipolar affective disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia. J Clin Psychiatry 68:899–907
Lee S, Tsang A, Breslau J et al (2009) Mental disorders and termination of education in high-income and low and middle-income countries: epidemiological study. Br J Psychiatry 194:411–417. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.108.054841
Lee YS, Kim J-J, Kwon JS (2013) Renaming schizophrenia in South Korea. Lancet 382:683–684. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(13)61776-6
Lindley E (2012) Inclusive dialogue: the way forward in anti-stigma mental health education? J Public Ment Health 11:77–87. https://doi.org/10.1108/17465721211236426
Link BG, Phelan JC (2001) Conceptualizing stigma. Annu Rev Sociol 27:363–385. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.363
Link BG, Yang LH, Phelan JC, Collins PY (2004) Measuring mental illness stigma. Schizophr Bull 30:511–541. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.schbul.a007098
Liu M, Wu L, Yao S (2016) Dose-response association of screen time-based sedentary behaviour in children and adolescents and depression: a meta-analysis of observational studies. Br J Sports Med 50:1252–1258. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2015-095084
Maclean M, Sims C, Bower C et al (2017) Maltreatment risk among children with disabilities. Pediatrics 139:e20161817. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001163-200113040-00010
Mai Q, Holman CDJ, Sanfilippo FM et al (2011) Mental illness related disparities in diabetes prevalence, quality of care and outcomes: a population-based longitudinal study. BMC Med 9:118. https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-9-118
Maticka-Tyndale E, Barnett JP (2010) Peer-led interventions to reduce HIV risk of youth: a review. Eval Program Plann 33:98–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2009.07.001
Mehta N, Clement S, Marcus E et al (2015) Evidence for effective interventions to reduce mental health-related stigma and discrimination in the medium and long term: systematic review. Br J Psychiatry 207:377–384. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.114.151944
Oliver M (2013) The social model of disability: thirty years on. Disabil Soc 28:1024–1026. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2013.818773
Patel V, Saxena S, Lund C et al (2018) The lancet commission on global mental health and sustainable development. Lancet 392:1553–1598. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31612-X
Pescosolido BA, Martin JK (2015) The stigma complex. Annu Rev Sociol 41:87–116. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071312-145702
Pettigrew TF, Tropp LR (2006) A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. J Pers Soc Psychol 90:751–783. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.5.751
Pettigrew TF, Tropp LR, Wagner U, Christ O (2011) Recent advances in intergroup contact theory. Int J Intercult Relations 35:271–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2011.03.001
Pitre N, Stewart S, Adams S et al (2007) The use of puppets with elementary school children in reducing stigmatizing attitudes towards mental illness. J Ment Health 16:415–429
Rüsch N, Angermeyer MC, Corrigan PW (2005) Mental illness stigma: concepts, consequences, and initiatives to reduce stigma. Eur Psychiatry 20:529–539. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2005.04.004
Sartorius N, Chiu H, Heok KE et al (2014) Name change for schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 40:255–258. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbt231
Shah N (2004) Changing minds at the earliest opportunity. Psychiatr Bull 28:213–215
Social Exclusion Unit (2004) Mental health and social exclusion. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, London
Suhrcke M, de Paz Nieves C (2011) The impact of health and health behaviors on educational outcomes in high-income countries: a review of the evidence. WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen
Thornicroft G (2006) Shunned: discrimination against people with mental illness. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK
Thornicroft G (2013) Premature death among people with mental illness. BMJ 346. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f2969
Thornicroft G, Rose D, Kassam A, Sartorius N (2007) Stigma: ignorance, prejudice or discrimination? Br J Psychiatry 190:192–193. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.106.025791
Wahl OF (2002) Children’ s views of mental illness: a review of the literature. Psychiatr Rehabil Skills 6:37–41
Wahl OF (2003) Depictions of mental illnesses in children’s media. J Ment Health 12:249–258. https://doi.org/10.1080/0963823031000118230
Weiss MF (1986) Children’s attitudes toward the mentally ill: a developmental analysis. Psychol Rep 58:11–20. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1986.58.1.11
World Health Organization (2013) Mental health action plan 2013–2020. WHO Press, World Health Organization, Geneva
World Health Organization (2014) Preventing suicide: a global imperative. World Health Organization, Geneva
Yamaguchi S, Wu S-I, Biswas M et al (2013) Effects of short-term interventions to reduce mental health-related stigma in university or college students: a systematic review. J Nerv Ment Dis 201:490–503. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0b013e31829480df
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Gronholm, P.C., Eaton, J. (2020). Stigmatization and Society’s Inclusiveness Across Cultures. In: Taylor, E., Verhulst, F., Wong, J., Yoshida, K., Nikapota, A. (eds) Mental Health and Illness of Children and Adolescents. Mental Health and Illness Worldwide. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0753-8_23-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0753-8_23-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-0753-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-0753-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences