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Crazy? So what! Effects of a school project on students' attitudes towards people with schizophrenia
Author(s) -
Schulze B.,
RichterWerling M.,
Matschinger H.,
Angermeyer M. C.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0447.2003.02444.x
Subject(s) - schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , psychology , stigma (botany) , mental health , social distance , social stigma , psychiatry , clinical psychology , medicine , family medicine , disease , covid-19 , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv)
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.