components of implicit stigma against mental illness among chinese students组件的内隐污名对精神疾病在中国的学生.pdf

Components of Implicit Stigma against Mental Illness among Chinese Students Xiaogang Wang1,2,3, Xiting Huang1,2*, Todd Jackson1,2, Ruijun Chen4,5 1 Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Southwest University, Chongqing, China, 2 Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China, 3 Sichuan Judicial and Police Officers Professional College, Deyang, China, 4 School Culture and Social Development Studies, Southwest University, Chongqing, China, 5 College of Education Science, Zhengzhou Normal University, Zhengzhou, China Abstract Although some research has examined negative automatic aspects of attitudes toward mental illness via relatively indirect measures among Western samples, it is unclear whether negative attitudes can be automatically activated in individuals from non-Western countries. This study attempted to validate results from Western samples with Chinese college students. We first examined the three-component model of implicit stigma (negative cognition, negative affect, and discriminatory tendencies) toward mental illness with the Single Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT). We also explored the relationship between explicit and implicit stigma among 56 Chinese university college students. In the three separate SC- IATs and the combined SC-IAT, automatic associations between mental illness and negative descriptors were stronger relative to those with positive descriptors and the implicit effect of cognitive and affective SC-IATs were significant. Explicit and implicit measures of stigma toward mental illness were unrelated. In our sample, women’s overall attitudes toward mental illness were more negative than men’s were, but no gender differences were found for explicit measures. These findings suggested that implicit stigma toward mental illness exists in Chinese students