Attitudes Toward Mental Illness Among Relatives of Former Patients

Abstract

Among relatives of formerly hospitalized patients, attitudes toward the etiology of mental illness, the mental hospital, the normalcy of former patients, and the responsibility of patients for their condition were assessed by means of short, structured scales. These attitudes were found to be associated with education, age, and verbal ability. There was no relationship, however, between these attitudes and social class, independent of education. The analysis suggests that enlightened attitudes toward mental illness can be more parsimoniously accounted for on the basis of differential verbal skills than on the basis of differences in style of life. Attitudes of relatives were also found to be associated with the posthospital behavior of the patients. Difficulty may be anticipated in implementing procedures to modify the attitudes of patients' family members, for their attitudes appear to be rooted in a set of diverse elements that includes socialization as well as situational variables.