Mental Health literacy and Stigma Among Middle Socio- Economic class of Pakistan

Abstract

The disregarding of mental health in the previous era from mainstream health has contributed to marked discrimination of mentally challenged individuals. This study focuses on the exploration of the relationship among the different levels (L-middle, M-middle and U-middle) of middle socio-economic classes (SES) in correspondence with Mental Health Literacy (MHL) and Mental Health Stigma (MHS). After the application of methodology based selection criterion and extraction rules to minimize bias, the sample comprised of 60 participants from the Middle SES chosen through convenience sampling of age group 25-45 years across the different areas of Karachi, Pakistan. Measures used were the two questionnaires namely Mental Health Knowledge Questionnaire (MHKQ) in 2009 by Chinese Ministry of health and Community attitudes towards Mentally 111 (CAMI) by Taylor and Dear in 1981. Income ranges were used as the indicator of the class. Data gathered was analyzed using (Analysis of variance) ANOVA to derive the comparative study of the two questionnaires among the middle social class and Pearson Correlation to verify the relationship among the variables used. Results showed that there doesn’t exists significant differences among the levels of the middle socioeconomic class with respect to Mental Health Stigma (p= .579) and Mental Health Literacy (p=.636). Statistical analysis of Pearson co-relation revealed very weak or almost zero correlations of SES with Mental health stigma (r=.08) and Mental Health literacy (r=0.12) signifying that MHS and MHL are not bound by one’s income range within the middle class among the general population of Pakistan. These findings will have implications for targeting mental health awareness campaigns and increasing knowledge.