A Comparison of African-Caribbean and White European Young Adults' Conceptions of Schizophrenia Symptoms and the Diagnostic Label

Background: Discrepancies in the experiences of different ethnic groups in mental health services exist, such as in the persistently higher rates of schizophrenia diagnosis found among the African-Caribbean population compared to the white European population in the UK. Some hypotheses consider whether this is due to greater stigmatizing attitudes to mental illness in the African-Caribbean community, leading individuals to avoid treatment-seeking and an increased incidence of schizophrenia. This study aimed to investigate recognition and evaluation of schizophrenic symptoms across African-Caribbean and white European individuals.

Method: One hundred and twenty eight adult students from London colleges completed a questionnaire assessing stigma beliefs, evaluation of symptoms as mental illness and help-seeking beliefs, in response to symptom vignettes.

Results and Discussion: African-Caribbean participants indicated less stigmatizing beliefs towards both the symptoms and diagnostic label of schizophrenia compared to the white European participants. White European participants were more likely to label vignettes as implying `mental illness' and also more likely to recommend professional health treatment. These results are inconsistent with a hypothesis that on average African-Caribbean people stigmatize schizophrenia more than white European people. While white European participants' beliefs were more likely to follow a western model of mental illness, African-Caribbean participants were more likely to have alternative beliefs. The influence of racial discrimination, mental illness knowledge and societal structures are discussed.