Correlates of attitudinal social distance toward the mentally ill: A review and re-survey

Abstract

There has been a consensus in the literature that positive attitudes towards the exmental patient are inversely related to age, directly related to education, and not related to sex. There has been some controversy over whether or not familiarity with people who have been mentally ill encourages positive attitudes towards them. A 1974 re-survey of the Cummings' 1951Closed Ranks baseline study area shows a slight overall shift toward more acceptance of the mentally ill and appears to support the often-found relationships between age, education, and attitudinal social distance. Multiple regression analysis, however, suggests that education has no appreciable impact on attitudes and that age has negative influence only for those in the over-40 age group. Neither sex nor familiarity shows significant association with social distance. An item-by-item analysis of the social distance scale reveals that of eleven significant relationships, age accounts for six of them, education for two, and familiarity for three. Because of the particularly high negative correlations between age and items concerning marriage and falling in love, the possibility arises that these social distance items may be reactive to changing cultural patterns and largely responsible for indications that attitudes have become more favourable. Our analyses suggest that this is not the case and that explanations for more positive attitudes must be sought elsewhere.