Prevalence and Correlates of Mental Health Stigma among Pakistani Adolescents and Young Adults

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Stigma significantly hinders the effective management of mental illness in Pakistan, particularly among adolescents and young adults. Given that stigmatizing beliefs can vary across different socioeconomic and demographic groups, it is crucial to study these variations within the Pakistani context, as most existing empirical evidence comes from Western contexts. This paper aims to investigate the prevalence of stigmatizing attitudes and explore the relationship between the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of adolescents and young adults and their personal and perceived public stigmatic attitudes towards mental illness in Pakistan. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 1328 adolescents aged 15-24 from twelve public colleges in Layyah. The survey assessed personal and perceived public stigmatic attitudes using instruments that measure social distancing, stigma beliefs, and services stigma. Descriptive statistics and Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) were employed to evaluate differences in mean scores and determine the statistical significance of the observed variations in the scales. The findings indicate that nearly half of the participants perceived a high level of public social distancing, reflecting a prevalent sense of social avoidance among adolescents in Pakistan. Similarly, a substantial portion exhibited stereotypical attitudes towards mental illness, both personally and publicly. Notably, over 40% of the participants displayed stigmatizing attitudes toward utilizing professional psychiatric services. Factors such as gender, residential area, and father’s occupation significantly influenced these attitudes, with females, rural residents, and children of farmers experiencing heightened stigma. The study underscores the discrepancy between perceived public and personal stigmatic attitudes, reveals high levels of stigma associated with using professional psychiatric services, and illustrates variation in attitudes by socioeconomic and demographic factors.