Abstract

 Introduction: Mental disorders are recognized as a major contributor (12%) to the global burden of disease and are among the most stigmatizing conditions worldwide. The lack of awareness is very evident in Nepal. In this study, we aimed to learn about the attitude of senior secondary level students towards mental illness.
 Material And Method: Descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted amongst senior secondary level students to investigate about their attitude towards mental illness. We recruited a sample of 138 students from classes 11 and 12 from a conveniently sampled school of Dharan Sub-metropolitan. Semi-structured questionnaire was used to elicit the information.
 Results: Our study group consisted of 53.6% females while 46.4% were males. Equal numbers of students were sampled from each grades with their ages ranging from 14-18 years. The mean for total of BMI scale was 52 and the standard deviation was observed to be 12.810. The T-tests revealed males had more negative attitude than the female students which was statistically significant with a p value of 0.048. Our study revealed that there was a significant negative correlation between the attitude scores and the grade the respondents were studying and also between the gender of the respondent, father’s and mother’s education level and in students having a family member or neighbor suffer from mental illness.
 Conclusion: Most of the students in the senior secondary level were found to have negative attitudes towards mental illness though no any variables were found to be contributing towards such perceptions from our research.
Highlights
Mental disorders are recognized as a major contributor (12%) to the global burden of disease and are among the most stigmatizing conditions worldwide
The T-tests revealed males had more negative attitude than the female students which was statistically significant with a p value of 0.048
Our study revealed that there was a significant negative correlation between the attitude scores and the grade the respondents were studying and between the gender of the respondent, father’s and mother’s education level and in students having a family member or neighbor suffer from mental illness
Summary
Mental disorders are recognized as a major contributor (12%) to the global burden of disease and are among the most stigmatizing conditions worldwide. Mental disorders are widely recognized as a major contributor (12%) to the global burden of disease and are among the most stigmatizing conditions worldwide.[1] Stigma is considered as the negative attitude towards people suffering from mental illness due to lack of knowledge and misinformation leading to prejudice and exclusion or avoidance behaviors (discrimination).[2] Globally the notion of fighting stigma and increasing acceptance of the mentally ill is widespread and has been advocated for a long time, little to no changes have been observed.3The lack of awareness and stigma is still very evident in many developing Asian countries includingNepal.[4,5] Secondary School students (SSs) are important members of the community; their attitude towards mental illness can be highly influential. Researches have shown that the mean age of onset for half of the chronic mental illnesses is 14 and three fourth of these illnesses is 24.6 Given the prevalence of these illnesses in this age group, it seems only reasonable that the attitude of this age group should be assessed
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