Sex differences in opinion towards mental illness of secondary school students in Hong Kong

Petrus Y N NG*, Kai Fong Chan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

68 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Sex differences in social attitudes have been well documented. Women hold more positive attitudes toward mental illness than men do. This paper reports on the effect of sex differences in a study of secondary school students' opinions about mental illness in Hong Kong. A total of 2,223 secondary school students, drawn by random sample, completed a 45-item questionnaire on Opinion about Mental Illness in Chinese Community (OMICC) with a six-point Likert Scale. Individual items with weak correlations were eliminated, leaving 33 items for analysis (Cronbach's Alpha=.866). Using factor analysis six factors were identified. These include: Benevolence, Separatism, Stereotyping, Restrictiveness, Pessimistic Prediction and Stigmatization. Results showed that girls scored higher regarding benevolence. Boys were found to have more stereotyping, restrictive, pessimistic and stigmatizing attitudes towards mental illness.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)79-88
Number of pages10
JournalInternational Journal of Social Psychiatry
Volume46
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2000

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Psychiatry and Mental health

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