Attitudes of Chinese and American male students towards mental illness

Attitudes towards mental illness were measured by the Opinion About Mental Illness Scale (OMI) for 83 male graduate college students from American and Chinese cultural backgrounds. The OMI questionnaire consisted of five factors: A) Authoritarianism, B) Benevolence, C) Mental Hygiene Ideology, D) Social Restrictiveness, and E) Interpersonal Etiology. Statistically significant differences between the two groups of subjects on Factors A, B, D and E of the OMI were found. American students performed lower on "Authoritarianism", on "Social Restrictiveness", and on "Interpersonal Etiology", and higher on "Benevolence" than Chinese subjects.