A Review of School-Based Interventions to Reduce Stigma towards Schizophrenia
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A Review of School-Based Interventions to Reduce Stigma towards Schizophrenia Laura K. Flanigan 1 & Emma A. Climie 1
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract
Schizophrenia is among the most stigmatized mental illness. Adolescence may be a critical time to intervene, before stigmatizing attitudes have been solidified. As such, schools may be in a unique position to provide anti-stigma interventions to a large number of students. The aim of this paper was to review and critically analyze the most recent (2003-present) school-based schizophrenia stigma interventions, with seven studies identified. Studies were analyzed according to their intervention method, outcome measures, and experimental design. Substantial heterogeneity between studies precluded concrete conclusions or recommendations regarding the effectiveness of school-based schizophrenia stigma interventions. However, the most effective and informative studies utilized combinations of rigorous experimental design, psychometrically-validated measures examining multiple different factors related to stigma, and longer-term follow-up analyses. Future researchers are encouraged to utilize intervention methods and outcomes measures that are developed from and relevant to adolescent populations, rather than adapted from that of adults. Keywords Schizophrenia . Stigma . School-based interventions . Anti-stigma interventions . Mental health Mental health is considered a state of psychological and/or emotional well-being that allows for successful relationships, communications, adaptability, and resiliency [42]. As stated by the Surgeon General, “mental health is fundamental to health” ( [42], p. 89); that is, cognitive, behavioural, and emotional health creates a foundation for overall physical health. Mental illness or disorder, then, is a state of psychological or emotional disarray, such that an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviours create distress and impairment in daily
* Emma A. Climie [email protected] Laura K. Flanigan [email protected]
1
Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Psychiatric Quarterly
functioning [42]. One mental illness that causes a great degree of impairment and is often coined as the “prototypical” presentation of mental illness [56] is schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that occurs in 0.3–0.7% of the population, with a typical onset between the late teens and mid-30s [4]. Early onset (i.e., before the teenage years) is rare, but related to a worse prognosis [4]. The symptoms of schizophrenia include a range of cognitive, behavioural, and emotional disturbances, which are characterized by positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms. Positive symptoms are those that reflect an excess or distortion of normal functioning [4], including delusions and hallucinations. Delusions are strongly-held beliefs that cannot be changed with contradictory evidence [4]. The most common delusions are those of persecution (i.e., that t
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