Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University, 722 W. 168th St. 1610, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2012 Jan;47(1):145-56. doi: 10.1007/s00127-010-0319-7. Epub 2010 Nov 16.
The increasing interest in the genetic causes of mental disorders may exacerbate existing stigma if negative beliefs about a genetic illness are generally accepted. China's history of policy-level eugenics and genetic discrimination in the workplace suggests that Chinese communities will view genetic mental illness less favorably than mental illness with non-genetic causes. The aim of this study is to identify differences between Chinese Americans and European Americans in eugenic beliefs and stigma toward people with genetic mental illness.
We utilized data from a 2003 national telephone survey designed to measure how public perceptions of mental illness differ if the illness is described as genetic. The Chinese American (n = 42) and European American (n = 428) subsamples were analyzed to compare their support of eugenic belief items and measures of stigma.
Chinese Americans endorsed all four eugenic statements more strongly than European Americans. Ethnicity significantly moderated the relationship between genetic attribution and three out of five stigma outcomes; however, genetic attribution actually appeared to be de-stigmatizing for Chinese Americans while it increased stigma or made no difference for European Americans.
Our findings show that while Chinese Americans hold more eugenic beliefs than European Americans, these attributions do not have the same effect on stigma as they do in Western cultures. These results suggest that future anti-stigma efforts must focus on eugenic attitudes as well as cultural beliefs for Chinese Americans, and that the effects of genetic attributions for mental illness should be examined relative to other social, moral, and religious attributions common in Chinese culture.
对精神障碍遗传原因的日益关注，如果人们普遍接受对遗传疾病的负面看法，可能会加剧现有的污名化。中国在政策层面上的优生学历史和工作场所的遗传歧视表明，与非遗传原因导致的精神疾病相比，中国社会对遗传性精神疾病的看法将不那么有利。本研究的目的是确定美籍华裔和欧洲裔美国人在优生信仰和对遗传性精神疾病患者的污名化方面的差异。
我们利用了 2003 年一项全国性电话调查的数据，该调查旨在衡量如果将疾病描述为遗传性，公众对精神疾病的看法有何不同。分析了美籍华裔（n=42）和欧洲裔美国人（n=428）亚组，以比较他们对优生信仰项目的支持程度和对遗传性精神疾病患者污名化的衡量标准。
美籍华裔比欧洲裔美国人更强烈地认同四项优生学陈述。种族显著调节了遗传归因与五种污名化结果中的三种之间的关系；然而，遗传归因实际上对美籍华裔来说具有去污名化的作用，而对欧洲裔美国人来说则增加了污名化或没有影响。
我们的研究结果表明，虽然美籍华裔比欧洲裔美国人持有更多的优生信仰，但这些归因对污名化的影响与西方文化不同。这些结果表明，未来的反污名化工作必须关注美籍华裔的优生态度和文化信仰，并且应该相对于中国文化中常见的其他社会、道德和宗教归因来研究精神疾病遗传归因的影响。
