Dolphin Louise, Hennessy Eilis
School of Psychology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Dublin, Ireland.
BMC Psychiatry. 2017 Jun 24;17(1):228. doi: 10.1186/s12888-017-1389-9.
The impact of illness labels on the stigma experiences of individuals with mental health problems is a matter of ongoing debate. Some argue that labels have a negative influence on judgments and should be avoided in favour of information emphasising the existence of a continuum of mental health/illness. Others believe that behavioral symptoms are more powerful influencers of stigma than labels. The phenomenon has received little attention in adolescent research, despite the critical importance of the peer group at this developmental stage. This study employs a novel experimental design to examine the impact of the depression label and continuum information on adolescents' responses to peers with depression.
Participants were 156 adolescents, 76 male, 80 female (M = 16.25 years; SD = .361), assigned to one of three conditions (Control, Label, Continuum). Participants respond to four audio-visual vignette characters (two clinically depressed) on three occasions. Outcome measures included judgment of the mental health of the vignette characters and emotional responses to them.
Neither the provision of a depression label or continuum information influenced perceptions of the mental health of the characters in the audio-visual vignettes or participants' emotional responses to them.
The findings have implications for the design of interventions to combat depression stigma with adolescents. Interventions should not necessarily target perceptions of psychiatric labels, but rather perceptions of symptomatic behaviour.
疾病标签对有心理健康问题个体的污名化体验的影响是一个持续争论的话题。一些人认为标签对判断有负面影响，应该避免使用，而应强调心理健康/疾病连续体的存在。另一些人则认为行为症状比标签更能影响污名化。尽管同伴群体在这个发展阶段至关重要，但该现象在青少年研究中很少受到关注。本研究采用一种新颖的实验设计，以检验抑郁症标签和连续体信息对青少年对抑郁症同伴反应的影响。
参与者为156名青少年，76名男性，80名女性（M = 16.25岁；SD = 0.361），被分配到三种条件之一（对照组、标签组、连续体组）。参与者分三次对四个视听 vignette 角色（两个临床抑郁症患者）做出反应。结果测量包括对 vignette 角色心理健康的判断以及对他们的情绪反应。
提供抑郁症标签或连续体信息均未影响对视听 vignette 中角色心理健康的认知或参与者对他们的情绪反应。
这些发现对针对青少年抑郁症污名化的干预措施设计具有启示意义。干预措施不一定针对对精神病学标签的认知，而应针对对症状行为的认知。
