Evaluating the effect of an adapted mental health literacy intervention on mental health related stigma among secondary students in Germany: results of a pre-post evaluation study

BMC Public Health

Research

Ullrich Bauer¹  Orkan Okan²  Sandra Kirchhoff³  Alexandra M. Fretian⁴ 

[1] Centre for Prevention and Intervention in Childhood and Adolescence (CPI), Faculty of Educational Science, Bielefeld University, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany;Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Technical University of Munich, 80992, Munich, Germany;Department of Sport and Health Sciences, Technical University of Munich, 80992, Munich, Germany;Faculty of Educational Science, Bielefeld University, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany;Faculty of Educational Science, Bielefeld University, 33615, Bielefeld, Germany;

关键词: Stigma;    Mental health literacy;    Intervention;    Adolescents;    Mental health;    School;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-023-16825-y

 received in 2023-03-27, accepted in 2023-09-23,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMost mental health problems develop during youth, with about three quarter emerging before age 25. In adolescence, stigmatizing attitudes related to mental illness become more nuanced and consolidate into one’s belief system. As the stigma of mental illness is still one of the leading barriers to help-seeking, intervention measures should explicitly address it before it becomes entrenched over time. Preventive measures, for example, based on promoting mental health literacy (MHL), can be used to address and tackle stigmatizing attitudes. The Canadian MHL-based intervention “the Guide” was translated and adapted for the use in German schools. The present study evaluates the effect of the German version of the Guide on attitudes towards mental illness among students in Germany.MethodsThe first-time application of the Guide (German version) was evaluated with a pre-post-evaluation study with an intervention and a control group. The evaluation data of 188 students (intervention group n = 106, control group n = 82) were statistically analyzed focusing on the outcomes social stigma, social distance, and self-stigma.ResultsThe analysis showed that participants do not tend to hold stigmatizing attitudes even before the intervention. Nevertheless, the intervention was effective in reducing social stigma, but not in reducing social distance and self-stigma. Neither gender, pre-existing experience with mental illness, nor the delivery modality of the contact element within the intervention (speaker vs. video) seemed to influence the outcomes.ConclusionsThe German version of the MHL-based intervention, the Guide, seems to be a suitable intervention to improve attitudes towards mental illness among students in Germany. More extensive research is necessary to confirm the findings and further explore factors that influence the program’s effects on attitudes short- and long-term.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2023

【 图 表 】

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