Attitudes Towards Mental Illness : A Comparative Sample Study of Sweden contra India

Sammanfattning: This study seeks to investigate the attitudes towards mental illness in Sweden in comparison with India. To measure attitudes towards people with mental illness the questionnaire Community Attitudes Towards Mental Illness (CAMI) was used containing positive and negative statements regarding mental illness. These statements are divided into the four attitude categories of Authoritarianism, Benevolence, Social Restrictiveness and Community Mental Health Ideology. The questionnaire study consisted of a total of 410 students; 272 from Sweden and 138 from India. Sweden and India were chosen because of their differences based on factors that recent studies have shown affect a community’s attitudes towards mental illness; socio-economic, religion and culture. The results show that there is a difference in attitudes between the two countries in three out of the four attitude categories, where India showed a more positive attitude than Sweden towards mental illness meaning they have a greater sense of authoritative approach, goodwill, and social inclusion. This result was expected in the sense that there was a significant difference between the countries but not in the sense that India was to be the country to have a more positive attitude than Sweden since it goes against what previous research indicated.