Stereotypes surrounding individuals with psychiatric disorders persist, with members of Generation Z among those who hold them. This article explores the most prominent stereotypes and their relationship with self-stigma of seeking professional help, using psychological network analysis. Based on the premise that stereotypes toward psychiatric patients vary depending on their diagnosis, we examined four stigma networks (i.e., general mental health issues, emotional disorders, psychotic disorders, and substance use issues), from a sample of 483 Romanian students across various specializations. Our findings reveal that, in all four networks, one of the most central (i.e., strongly connected) stereotypes is that psychiatric patients are untrustworthy, a belief closely associated with the perception of danger, which also emerged as a central stereotype. Beyond these two relatively important stereotypes, our exploratory study shows that additional central beliefs can be identified in each network. For example, in the emotional disorders network, another central stereotype is that patients exhibit lower intelligence relative to the general population. In the psychotic disorders network, a central belief is that patients are unable to keep a job. Moreover, in the substance use disorders network, two other relatively important stereotypes are the perceptions that patients are dirty and disgusting. Regarding self-stigma of help-seeking, this variable shows small to moderate associations with several stereotypes across all four networks, without any single connection standing out prominently. Furthermore, although the relative importance of certain stereotypes does not differ between emotional disorders and the general mental health network, the situation is different for psychotic disorders, where the stereotype that patients are unable to maintain employment is relatively more important. These results provide a foundation for future research aimed at developing targeted interventions, where appropriate, to reduce mental health stigma.
Alexa et al. (Thu,) studied this question.