The Teachers' Attitudes, Discrimination and Causes of Prejudice Towards People with Mental Illnesses

Gyung Hee Kim; Kye Ha Kim

doi:10.12934/jkpmhn.2013.22.2.97

Journal List > J Korean Acad Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs > v.22(2) > 1057999

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Kim and Kim: The Teachers' Attitudes, Discrimination and Causes of Prejudice Towards People with Mental Illnesses

Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing

Journal of Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 2013; 22(2): 97-106.

Published online: 30 June 2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12934/jkpmhn.2013.22.2.97

The Teachers' Attitudes, Discrimination and Causes of Prejudice Towards People with Mental Illnesses

Gyung Hee Kim¹, Kye Ha Kim²

¹Seoul Women's College of Nursing, Seoul, Korea.

²College of Nursing, Chosun University, Gwangju, Korea.

Corresponding author: Kim, Kye Ha. Department of Nursing, Chosun University, 375 Seosuk-dong, Dong-gu, Gwangju 501-759, Korea. Tel: +82-62-230-6326, Fax: +82-62-230-6329, kyehakim@hanmail.net

Received 17 April 2013 Revised 25 June 2013 Accepted 25 June 2013

(open-access):

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the teachers' attitudes, discrimination, and causes of prejudice towards people with mental illnesses.

Methods

A cross-sectional study design was used and participants included 158 teachers who were recruited from four schools in S and G cities, Korea. From October to December, 2011, data on general characteristics, attitudes, discrimination and causes of prejudice towards people with mental illnesses were collected using self-administered questionnaires. SPSS/WIN 18.0 version was used for descriptive analysis, t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation.

Results

The mean scores of teachers' attitudes towards people with mental illness were, authoritarianism, 3.24, benevolence, 2.96, social restrictiveness, 3.44 and community mental health ideology, 2.75. There were significant differences in benevolence according to age. The experience of meeting people with mental illness contributed to positive attitudes towards people with mental illness in the benevolence subscale. There were significant differences in social restrictiveness according to residence. There were significant differences in discrimination according to age. Subscales of attitudes were significantly correlated with discrimination.

Conclusion

These results emphasize a need for continuous education not only of teachers but also of the general population.

Keywords: Mental disorders, School teacher, Attitude, Discrimination, Prejudice

Figures and Tables

Table 1

Attitudes and Discrimination towards People with Mental Illnesses (N=158)

Table 2

Causes of Prejudice towards People with Mental Illnesses

Table 3

Attitudes and Discrimination by General Characteristics (N=158)

Table 4

Relationships between Attitudes and Discrimination

Notes

This study was supported by the National Health Promotion Fund.

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