Abstract
BackgroundTo investigate and compare the predictors of personal and perceived stigma associated with depression.MethodThree samples were surveyed to investigate the predictors: a national sample of 1,001 Australian adults; a local community sample of 5,572 residents of the Australian Capital Territory and Queanbeyan aged 18 to 50 years; and a psychologically distressed subset (n = 487) of the latter sample. Personal and Perceived Stigma were measured using the two subscales of the Depression Stigma Scale. Potential predictors included demographic variables (age, gender, education, country of birth, remoteness of residence), psychological distress, awareness of Australia's national depression initiative beyondblue, depression literacy and level of exposure to depression. Not all predictors were used for all samples.ResultsPersonal stigma was consistently higher among men, those with less education and those born overseas. It was also associated with greater current psychological distress, lower prior contact with depression, not having heard of a national awareness raising initiative, and lower depression literacy. These findings differed from those for perceived stigma except for psychological distress which was associated with both higher personal and higher perceived stigma. Remoteness of residence was not associated with either type of stigma.ConclusionThe findings highlight the importance of treating the concepts of personal and perceived stigma separately in designing measures of stigma, in interpreting the pattern of findings in studies of the predictors of stigma, and in designing, interpreting the impact of and disseminating interventions for stigma.
Highlights
To investigate and compare the predictors of personal and perceived stigma associated with depression
Personal stigma was consistently higher among men, those with less education and those born overseas
It was associated with greater current psychological distress, lower prior contact with depression, not having heard of a national awareness raising initiative, and lower depression literacy
Summary
To investigate and compare the predictors of personal and perceived stigma associated with depression. Recent evidence suggests that the stigma is a leading cause of concern for people with depression [1]. There have been many studies of stigma associated with mental disorders. Only a minority of these have focused on what factors predict stigma associated with depression either among the general public or in people with depression. Such information may be critical to the successful design, tailoring and targeting both of public destigmatisation programs and interventions to reduce stigma in people with depression. Studies that have investigated the predictors of depression stigma have produced apparently conflicting results.
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