Abstract
BackgroundStigma toward schizophrenia is a substantial barrier to accessing care and adhering to treatment. Provisions to combat stigma are important, but in Japan and other developed countries there are few such provisions in place that target parents of adolescents. The attitudes of parents are important to address as first schizophrenic episodes typically occur in adolescence. In overall efforts to develop an education program and provisions against stigma, here we examined the relationship between stigma toward schizophrenia and demographic characteristics of parents of junior and senior high school students in Japan. The specific hypothesis tested was that contact and communication with a person with schizophrenia would be important to reducing stigma. A questionnaire inquiring about respondent characteristics and which included a survey on stigma toward schizophrenia was completed by 2690 parents.ResultsThe demographic characteristics significantly associated with the Devaluation- Discrimination Measure were family income, occupation, presence of a neighbor with schizophrenia, and participation in welfare activities for people with mental illness (p < 0.05). The mean ± SD score was 32.74 ± 5.66 out of a maximum of 48 points on the Link Devaluation-Discrimination Measure.ConclusionsStigma toward schizophrenia among parents of junior and senior high school students was in fact significantly stronger among members of the general public who had had contact with individuals with schizophrenia. In addition, stigma was associated with family income.
Highlights
Stigma toward schizophrenia is a substantial barrier to accessing care and adhering to treatment
The demographic characteristics significantly associated with the Devaluation-Discrimination Measure were occupation, presence of a neighbor with schizophrenia, family income, and participation in welfare activities for people with mental illness (Student’s or Welch’s t-test and one-way analysis of variance) (Table 3)
Regarding occupation, participants working in the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sector had the highest score, and participants earning less than the equivalent of US$11,000 had the highest score
Summary
Stigma toward schizophrenia is a substantial barrier to accessing care and adhering to treatment. In overall efforts to develop an education program and provisions against stigma, here we examined the relationship between stigma toward schizophrenia and demographic characteristics of parents of junior and senior high school students in Japan. Stigma can lead to a loss of opportunities, decreased self-esteem, discouraging experiences in the workplace or criminal justice system, and disparities in access to health care [1] It can drive individuals away from society and incline them towards nonadherence to medication [2]. Several sophisticated educational programs to counteract stigma have already been developed to provide basic information on schizophrenia and its associated behaviors to various populations under appropriate conditions [7,8,9], but there have been no studies of the effectiveness of such programs among the parents of adolescents in Japan. Through investigation of this hypothesis, we aimed to determine which factors, including that of contact and communication with a person with schizophrenia, influence stigma toward schizophrenia among parents of junior and senior high school students in Japan
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