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Updated: Sep 27, 2026

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Published on: December 2, 2015
Crazy? So what! Effects of a school project on students' attitudes towards people with schizophrenia
B Schulze1, M Richter-Werling, H Matschinger
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Leipzig, Germany. beatemschulze@web.de
Objective:
Aiming at promoting young people's mental health and reducing stigma towards people with schizophrenia, project weeks were carried out with secondary school students aged 14-18 years (n=90). Key to the project week is meeting a (young) person with schizophrenia.
Method:
Students' attitudes and behavioural intentions towards people with schizophrenia were assessed before and after the project. Parallelly, a control group of students were questioned (n=60). Assessment was repeated after 1 month.
Results:
Despite expected ceiling effects, the project led to a significant reduction of negative stereotypes. For social distance, a positive trend could be observed. These developments were not present with the controls. Attitude changes were still evident at the 1-month follow-up.
Conclusion:
Results support the hypothesis that young people's attitudes about schizophrenia are susceptible to change. Antistigma projects at school level could thus be a promising approach to improving public attitudes and to preventing stereotypes from becoming reinforced.
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