McSween Jean L
Department of Politics, University of Virginia, USA.
J Health Polit Policy Law. 2002 Oct;27(5):773-800. doi: 10.1215/03616878-27-5-773.
Public attitudes toward mental health present an interesting puzzle. While mental health is one aspect of general health and well-being, it receives less support for government spending increases than does health care. One explanation lies with the stigma that is attached to mental illness. This stigma produces more negative attitudes on policy issues related to persons with mental illness such as government spending for mental health. However, group identification, as defined by personal experience or a family member who has experienced a mental illness, may have a strong effect on these attitudes. Using data from the 1996 General Social Survey's module on mental health. I examine this and other hypotheses and find evidence that group identification increases the likelihood of increased support for government spending for mental health. These robust findings exist even in quantitative models, which include politically relevant variables and measure identification with mental illness in two different ways. These findings suggest that mental health is policy for the few because those most supportive of government spending increases are persons who share the common identity of experiencing mental illness.
公众对心理健康的态度呈现出一个有趣的谜题。虽然心理健康是总体健康和幸福的一个方面，但与医疗保健相比，它在政府增加支出方面获得的支持更少。一种解释在于与精神疾病相关的污名。这种污名在与精神疾病患者相关的政策问题上产生了更多负面态度，比如政府对心理健康的支出。然而，群体认同，如由个人经历或有精神疾病经历的家庭成员所定义的，可能会对这些态度产生强烈影响。利用1996年综合社会调查中关于心理健康模块的数据，我检验了这一假设及其他假设，并发现有证据表明群体认同增加了对政府增加心理健康支出支持的可能性。即使在包含政治相关变量并以两种不同方式衡量与精神疾病认同的定量模型中，这些有力的发现依然存在。这些发现表明，心理健康是少数人的政策，因为最支持政府增加支出的是那些有着精神疾病共同经历的人。
