Stigma towards mental illnesses: comparative study of the trajectory in the training of professionals in Psychology

Abstract

Stigmatization of people with mental illness has become one of the main barriers to their social inclusion and quality of life, with the professionals themselves reproducing stereotypes and beliefs that are stigmatizing. With the objective of investigating and comparing the level of stigmatization towards serious mental illnesses present between entering students and fifth-year students of the Faculty of Psychology of the National University of Córdoba, a comparative descriptive study was carried out.

The surveyed sample consisted of 242 students who responded about their knowledge of the Mental Health Law and the Corrigan Attribution Questionnaire (CAQ), which measures the level of stigma in various stereotypes. Student's t-tests of independent means with Bonferroni adjustment were calculated to compare the level of stigmatization and its stereotypes between entering students and fifth-year students.

According to the data obtained by applying the Student's T test with Bonferroni adjustments, between the general stigma score of the incoming psychology students and those of the fifth year, it was observed that there is a significant difference between the mean values ​​of the students freshmen (M=109.97; SD=12.44) and fifth-year students (M=104.5; SD=14.24) (95% CI).

In such a way, these results coincide with what some investigations express that, in students of careers related to mental health, it is expected to find significant levels of stigma, in their investigations they also find certain stigma on the part of health professionals, who Together with society, they also participate in the phenomenon of stigmatization through diagnostic and treatment approaches that can be as counterproductive as the stereotype that the community drops on the subject with mental illness. Depending on the results, as students progress academically in the course, their level of stigma decreases. The need to train students as future professionals in the field of mental health emerges, in order to offer a care service within the framework of Mental Health Law No. 26657.