Investigating Religious Orientation and the Attribution Model of Mental Illness Stigma
type: CreativeWork
description: Objectives: The Attribution Model of mental illness stigma posits that attributions about the causes and controllability of mental illness contribute to prejudicial emotional reactions, which in turn may lead to discriminatory behaviors towards people with mental illnesses. Given that people make different assumptions about different mental illnesses, if this model is correct, it suggests that specific diagnoses would elicit different types of stigma. Another important, but unexamined, predictor is extrinsic religious orientation, which correlates positively with other types of prejudice and may predict higher levels of mental illness stigma. The purpose of this study was to test the Attribution Model of stigma and examine the relationships between diagnosis, religious orientation, and stigma. Methods: Participants (n = 334) were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk, randomized to read one of three vignettes about a person with a mental illness (i.e., schizophrenia, anorexia nervosa, depression), and completed measures of mental illness stigma, religious orientation and affiliation, familiarity with mental illness, and authoritarianism. Using latent variable path analysis, analysis of covariance, and multiple regression analyses, relationships in the Attribution Model of mental illness stigma were assessed, as well as the impact of diagnosis and extrinsic religiosity on specific aspects of stigma as measured by the Attribution Questionnare-27 subscales (i.e., blame, anger, pity, danger/fear, avoidance, segregation, and coercion). Results: Assessment of the Attribution Model indicated moderate overall model fit after respecification. Path coefficients indicated strong relationships between variables that were generally consistent with paths predicted by the model. One notable exception was that feelings of pity were not associated with greater helping behaviors. Analysis of covariance suggested that diagnosis was a key predictor of stigma, and that schizophrenia was …
abstract: Objectives: The Attribution Model of mental illness stigma posits that attributions about the causes and controllability of mental illness contribute to prejudicial emotional reactions, which in turn may lead to discriminatory behaviors towards people with mental illnesses. Given that people make different assumptions about different mental illnesses, if this model is correct, it suggests that specific diagnoses would elicit different types of stigma. Another important, but unexamined, predictor is extrinsic religious orientation, which correlates positively with other types of prejudice and may predict higher levels of mental illness stigma. The purpose of this study was to test the Attribution Model of stigma and examine the relationships between diagnosis, religious orientation, and stigma. Methods: Participants (n = 334) were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk, randomized to read one of three vignettes about a person with a mental illness (i.e., schizophrenia, anorexia nervosa, depression), and completed measures of mental illness stigma, religious orientation and affiliation, familiarity with mental illness, and authoritarianism. Using latent variable path analysis, analysis of covariance, and multiple regression analyses, relationships in the Attribution Model of mental illness stigma were assessed, as well as the impact of diagnosis and extrinsic religiosity on specific aspects of stigma as measured by the Attribution Questionnare-27 subscales (i.e., blame, anger, pity, danger/fear, avoidance, segregation, and coercion). Results: Assessment of the Attribution Model indicated moderate overall model fit after respecification. Path coefficients indicated strong relationships between variables that were generally consistent with paths predicted by the model. One notable exception was that feelings of pity were not associated with greater helping behaviors. Analysis of covariance suggested that diagnosis was a key predictor of stigma, and that schizophrenia was …
author: Johnson-Kwochka, Annalee V.
language: en_US
keywords: Stigma, Mental Illness, Religion
date published: 2019-05
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:41:41Z
provider: IUPUI
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: IUPUI

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/1805/18919

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.7912/C2/1062