Uncovering Mental Health Stigma in Undergraduates From Different Study Fields

People with mental disorders (PMD) not only face difficulties related to their mental health problems, but also suffer from the stigma and discrimination associated with them. Research on social stigma in the educational setting has been mainly focused on health sciences students.

The main objective was to compare the level of social stigma toward PMD among university students, categorized by their fields of study. Additionally, the analysis considered gender, knowledge about mental health, familiarity, and contact.

A cross-sectional study was conducted among all first-year undergraduate students during the 2023-24 course at the University of Valencia, who were enrolled in five study fields: Engineering and Architecture (EA), Arts and Humanities (AH), Social and Legal Sciences (SL), Sciences (SC) and Health Sciences (HS). All students completed online an initial questionnaire with socio-demographic items, as well as the following questionnaires: The Mental Health Knowledge Schedule (MAKS), the Reported and Intended Behaviour Scale (RIBS), the Scale of Community Attitudes toward Mental Illness (CAMI), and the Attribution Questionnaire (AQ-27).

The final sample comprised 2,693 students. The EA students scored highest in authoritarianism and social restrictiveness, and lowest in benevolence and CMHI. Students from SL had higher levels of public stigma than those from AH, SC and HS. Considering only women, EA had the highest scores in authoritarianism. EA men had lower benevolence and lower CMHI.

These findings suggest that anti-stigma programs conducted at higher education institutions, in addition to traditional health sciences students, should target students from other study fields. This paper goes a step further by proposing that university curricula should include activities to improve understanding of mental health problems and reduce social stigma associated with PMD.