An examination of the effects of gender and education on attitudes toward people with mental illness among college students.

Abstract

Past studies examined a variety of factors involved in attitudes toward people with mental illness. Such factors included age, gender, education, and professional training. Usually these factors were investigated either alone or with many others in general studies about perception of mental illness. Past research has not focused on interaction effects between education and gender. This study investigated the interaction and effects of gender and educational level on attitudes toward people with mental illness. For the purpose of this study, attitudes of freshmen and graduate students in a variety of helping professions were examined. Eighty-eight students were given a short demographic profile and the attitudinal measure Community Attitudes Toward the Mentally Ill. This instrument measured global attitudes toward mental illness and attitudes on four different dimensions: authoritarianism, benevolence, community mental health ideology, and social restrictiveness. One factorial analysis of variance (ANOVAj for the entire scale and four additional factorial ANOVAs for each of the dimensions were performed. No significant interaction was found between gender and educational level. Results also showed no significant effect for gender on any of the four dimensions or the entire scale of community attitudes. No significant effect was found for benevolence or community mental health ideology. A significant effect for educational level on global attitudes toward people with mental illness was found. Two dimensions that varied significantly across educational levels were authoritarianism and social restrictiveness. Graduate students scored significantly higher than freshmen on both dimensions and on global attitudes indicating more favorable attitudes toward people with mental illness. Individuals on a higher educational level were less authoritarian and socially restrictive than individuals on a lower educational level.