Mental health public stigma at the university

Abstract

Public stigma in mental health hinders the recovery of people with severe mental illnesses. In this work, public stigma was explored in 678 students of the University of Seville (76.8 % women) from the faculties of psychology (44.54 %), communication (21.53 %), education (21.97 %) and technical faculties (11.95 %) at two points in time: academic year 2014-2015 and 2020-2021. For this purpose, the Spanish adaptation of the Attributional Questionnaire (AQ27) in its abbreviated version (AQ14), with adequate convergent validity and reliability, the Levels of Familiarity scale (LOF) and a sociodemographic questionnaire were used. Public stigma was present, with significant differences according to faculty (p = 0.003): higher in technical (M = 3.81; SD = 1.18) and education (M = 3.4; SD = 1.15) faculties. In the 2020-2021 academic year it decreased in the faculty of education (p < 0.001); in psychology and communication it remained stable (p = 0.912 and p = 0.331). The decrease in high levels of stigma in 2019-2020 compared to 2014-2015 due to anti-stigma interventions in recent years was discussed and it was proposed to develop other interventions sensitive to lower levels of stigma.