Citation

Freitag S, Stolzenburg S, Schomerus G, Schmidt S. Community Ment. Health J. 2019; 55(3): 507-518.

Affiliation

Department Health & Prevention, Institute of Psychology, University Greifswald, Greifswald, 17487, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10597-019-00372-1

PMID

30694419

Abstract

This study aims to develop and implement brief implicit association tests (BIATs) assessing stigmatizing attitudes towards mental illness, awareness of mental distress and self-identification as having a mental illness. We recruited 229 people (age range 18-80 years) with currently untreated depressive symptoms. In addition to BIATs, explicit measures assessed depression severity, contact experience and self-identification as having a mental illness. BIATs showed good feasibility. Age and educational differences were observed for each BIAT. Regarding depression severity, people with mild depression severity showed stronger implicit label-avoidance. Novel BIATs proved feasible and future research should investigate the predictive value of implicit measures on help seeking in people with mental illness.

Language: en

Keywords

Awareness of mental distress; Brief implicit association test; Depression; Label avoidance; Mental illness; Stigmatizing attitudes