The current study attempted to assess how the type of etiological explanations for symptoms and the belief of continuity of mental illness affected the rates of reported stigma scores in 58 Winona State University students. Participants were assigned to read one of four vignettes describing a fictional character that had depression. Each was as similar as we could make them while differing in the etiological explanation (caused by biogenetic factors or psychosocial factors) of the mental illness as well as describing the character as being on a continuum or having a dichotomous experience. All the participants took the Community Attitudes Towards the Mentally Ill scale (CAMI) to assess levels of stigmatized attitudes after reading the vignette. The CAMI measured for four facets of stigma (authoritarianism, benevolence, social restriction and community mental health ideology). Two-way factorial ANOVAs indicated that there were no significant effects found for either the etiological explanation or the belief of continuity of the four stigma facets. There was also no interaction found between the belief of continuity and the etiological explanations that affected rates of stigmatized attitudes in participants.https://openriver.winona.edu/urc2019/1108/thumbnail.jp
