{"title":"Evaluating the Changes in Attitudes Towards Mental Illness and Physical Disabilities After an Anti-Stigma Course for Occupational Therapy Students.","authors":"Hui-Ing Ma, Yu-Ling Huang, Chia-Han Yang, Chu-En Hsieh","doi":"10.1177/15691861251357343","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>This study assessed changes in attitudes towards mental illness and physical disabilities in occupational therapy (OT) students after an anti-stigma course (AS group) and compared the changes in attitudes with a control (CT group) attending a sociology course.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A quasi-experimental design was used in this study with 65 OT students across two academic years (AS group: <i>n</i> = 33; CT group: <i>n</i> = 32). Stigmatizing attitudes and social distance towards mental illness and physical disabilities were measured before and after course completion.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Compared with the CT group, the AS group showed a significantly greater reduction in social distance towards mental illness (<i>t</i> = 1.974, <i>p</i> = .027) and decreases in stigmatizing attitudes (<i>t</i> = 2.087, <i>p</i> = .021) and social distance (<i>t</i> = 2.512, <i>p</i> = .008) towards physical disabilities. In addition, both groups reported greater social distance towards mental illness than towards physical disabilities in both the pretest and posttest.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>A multimodal anti-stigma course may decrease social distance towards mental illness as well as stigmatizing attitudes and social distance concerning physical disabilities among OT students. However, further refinement of the anti-stigma course, with a particular emphasis on mental health stigma, is warranted.</p>","PeriodicalId":73249,"journal":{"name":"Hong Kong journal of occupational therapy : HKJOT","volume":" ","pages":"15691861251357343"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12240984/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Hong Kong journal of occupational therapy : HKJOT","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15691861251357343","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objective: This study assessed changes in attitudes towards mental illness and physical disabilities in occupational therapy (OT) students after an anti-stigma course (AS group) and compared the changes in attitudes with a control (CT group) attending a sociology course.
Methods: A quasi-experimental design was used in this study with 65 OT students across two academic years (AS group: n = 33; CT group: n = 32). Stigmatizing attitudes and social distance towards mental illness and physical disabilities were measured before and after course completion.
Results: Compared with the CT group, the AS group showed a significantly greater reduction in social distance towards mental illness (t = 1.974, p = .027) and decreases in stigmatizing attitudes (t = 2.087, p = .021) and social distance (t = 2.512, p = .008) towards physical disabilities. In addition, both groups reported greater social distance towards mental illness than towards physical disabilities in both the pretest and posttest.
Conclusions: A multimodal anti-stigma course may decrease social distance towards mental illness as well as stigmatizing attitudes and social distance concerning physical disabilities among OT students. However, further refinement of the anti-stigma course, with a particular emphasis on mental health stigma, is warranted.
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