[Stigma of mental illness among students]

Social stigma connected to mental illness is a societal problem for which we lack data, especially among children and teenagers.

The purpose of this study was to assess how adolescents stigmatize mental illness in peers and to investigate if stigmatizing attitudes differed as a function of other variables (e. g. age, gender, level of education).

A German translation of the Revised Attribution Questionnaire (r-AQ), a nine-item survey, was administered to 246 pupils between 14 and 16 years of age, who were recruited from seven German schools.

The pupils investigated in the study scored in the non-stigmatizing range of the questionnaire. Demographic factors did not have a significant effect on their stigmatizing attitude.

The low stigmatizing tendencies can be explained by existing contact with the mentally ill or by possible effects of recruitment. Future research should take knowledge about mental illness as a possible factor influencing stigmatizing attitudes into account.