OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this study was to investigate impact of
knowledge,
familiarity, and
prejudice about
mental illness as well as demographic factors on the social distance from
mentally ill people, which is a
proxy measure of discrimination.
METHOD:
To assess the impact of
knowledge and
familiarity,
prejudice about
mental illness and demographic factors on the social distance from
mental illness, we conducted a
telephone survey in
South Korea with the responders being nationally representative people
who were 18 years old or over (n=1040). Independent samples T-tests, one way
ANOVA and
linear regression analysis were performed to analyze the results of the
survey.
RESULT:
The social distance from
mental illness decreased as the
knowledge and
familiarity increased, but the social distance was increased as
prejudice was increased.
Prejudice had a greater impact on social distance than
familiarity and
knowledge.
Females showed greater social distance than did
males. A
higher education level had a negative effect on social distance.
CONCLUSION:
To reduce the social distance from
mentally ill people, efforts to increase the
familiarity about
mental illness as well as efforts to educate people about
mental illness are important.