The Structure of Stigma: Developing a New Measure of Mental Health Attitudes and Knowledge

Abstract

Although nearly half of all adults in the United States experience issues with mental health, the stigma around it remains a pervasive and stalwart barrier to treatment-seeking. Current research on stigmatization typically focuses on attitudes towards populations experiencing mental illness and receiving mental health treatment, but often lacks items measuring attitudes toward suicidality and mental health knowledge. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a new measure of mental health attitudes and knowledge that includes these aspects. The 27 original items were administered to 145 college students. A principal components analysis was conducted and four factors were identified – Stigma (10 items), Shame (3 items), Resource Knowledge (3 items), and Applied Knowledge (3 items). Items that did not load strongly onto any of these factors or that had significant cross-loadings (n = 8) were dropped, leaving a total of 19 items. We found positive correlations between the Stigma and Shame factors as well as Resource Knowledge and Applied Knowledge factors. Both Knowledge factors were negatively correlated with Shame. Implications for measurement and research of mental health stigma and knowledge are discussed.