What Are the Best Predictors of Opinions of Mental Illness in the Indian Population?

Abstract

Mental illness affects millions of people around the world, and yet support, advocacy, and acceptance of people with psychological disabilities is lacking. The stigma of mental illness hinders those who want and need help from getting it, which only perpetuates the problem. The purpose of this study was to identify those factors that have predictive value for opinions of mental illness. Mechanical Turk was used to distribute the Opinions of Mental Illness scale along with a demographics survey. Taking part in the initial survey were 195 people (82 females) of Indian descent. Utilizing a backwards stepwise regression, we constructed a model that included the four most influential factors. Gender, political affiliation, parental nurturing, and age emerged as the best predictors of opinions of mental illness within the Indian population.