Thesis
The Impact of Race on Mental Illness Stigmatization
(2017)
Abstract
Mental illness stigma negatively impacts the lives of people with mental illness in several ways, which the current body of literature has thoroughly explored. The literature also demonstrates that African Americans with mental illness experience stigma more acutely and in different ways than their white counterparts. However, there is a gap in the literature on the intersection of mental illness stigma and racial bias. The present study sought to close this gap by conducting an experiment using vignettes and Day’s Mental Illness Stigma Scale to examine how race and gender influence perceptions of people with mental illness. Participants were recruited from undergraduate courses at a private religious university (N=105). No main effects of gender were found, but race did significantly impact perceptions of interpersonal relationships with people who have mental illness. Implications of these results as well as directions for future research were outlined.
Keywords
- race,
- racial bias,
- racism,
- sexism,
- gender,
- mental illness stigma,
- intersectionality
Disciplines
Publication Date
Spring 2017
Degree
Master of Arts
Field of study
Community Psychology
Department
Psychology
Advisor
Reed M. Mueller, Ph.D.
Citation Information
Shelley Devens. "The Impact of Race on Mental Illness Stigmatization" (2017) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/r-mueller/32/