Predictors of personal, perceived and self-stigma towards anxiety and depression

Findings confirm the role of contact and knowledge in personal stigma for both disorders, consistent with previous findings. This finding also supports evidence that interventions addressing these factors are associated with a decline in personal stigma. However, lack of relationship between contact with, and knowledge of a mental illness and perceived and self-stigma for either depression or anxiety suggests that these factors may not play a major role in perceived or self-stigma. The identification of symptomatology as a key factor associated with self-stigma for both anxiety and depression is significant, and has implications for community-wide interventions aiming to increase help-seeking behaviour, as well as individual treatment strategies for clinicians. Further research should examine whether these relationships hold for groups with clinically diagnosed depression and anxiety disorders.