Social Distance Attitudes of Nursing Students towards Adults with Mental Disorders

So Young Lee; Kyunghee Lee

doi:10.12934/jkpmhn.2016.25.4.356

Journal List > J Korean Acad Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs > v.25(4) > 1058093

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Lee and Lee: Social Distance Attitudes of Nursing Students towards Adults with Mental Disorders

Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 2016; 25(4): 356-366.

Published online: 30 December 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12934/jkpmhn.2016.25.4.356

Social Distance Attitudes of Nursing Students towards Adults with Mental Disorders

So Young Lee, Kyunghee Lee

Department of Nursing, Keimyung University, Daegu, Korea.

Corresponding author: Lee, Kyunghee. Department of Nursing, Keimyung University, 1095 Dalgubeol-daero, Dalseo-gu, Daegu 42601, Korea. Tel: +82-53-580-3927, Fax: +82-53-580-3916, khl645@gw.kmu.ac.kr

Received 3 August 2016 Revised 5 October 2016 Accepted 16 November 2016

(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 aim of this study was to explore factors associated with the social distance attitudes of nursing students towards adults with mental disorders. The relationship between social distance and attitudes toward adults with mental disorders was also examined.

Methods

A descriptive research was conducted to describe the characteristics of the population and the data were collected from September 22 to October 2, 2014. The sample included 359 participants. Social distance was measured by a modified version of the Social Distance Scale and CAMI was used to assess attitudes towards adults with mental disorders.

Results

Participants showed less authoritarian, more benevolence, less social restrictiveness in attitudes towards adults with mental disorders. The participants also showed a positive community mental health ideology. More importantly, the attitudes towards people with mental disorders was the strongest predictor (β=.67), explaining 35% of the social distance.

Conclusion

With a deeper understanding of social distance as related to attitudes towards people with mental disorders, it is possible to create targeted interventions with the overall goal of minimizing the social distance and authoritarianism and of facilitating benevolence among nursing students.

Keywords: Attitudes, Mental disorders, College students, Social distance

Figures and Tables

Table 1

General Characteristics of the Participants (N=359)

Table 2

Social Distance Difference according to the General Characteristics of the Participants (N=359)

^*Scheffé test.

Table 3

Attitudes Differences according to the General Characteristics of the Participants (N=359)

^*Scheffé test.

Table 4

The Correlation between Social Distance and Attitudes toward the Mentally Disabled (N=359)

^*p<.001.

Table 5

Factors Affecting the Social Distance for the Mentally Disabled (N=359)

Notes

This article is a condensed form of the first author's master's thesis from Keimyung University

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