Prejudice and work discrimination: Exploring the effects of employers’ work experience, contact and attitudes on the intention to hire people with mental illness

ABSTRACT

Previous studies informed that work experience improves employers’ attitudes toward hiring people with mental illness. However, there is a lack of reliable instruments to measure employers’ attitudes. In this study, significant associations between employers’ attitudes toward the employability of people with mental illness and the intention to hire them were explored, as well as the work experience and contact with those individuals. Employers’ opinions were collected answering a questionnaire measuring attitudes and intention to hire. Psychometric properties of both scales were analyzed. Score differences were tested and a path model was performed for explaining intention to hire. EFA and CFA provided 14 items distributed into two factors for the attitudes scale. Intention to hire scale demonstrates employers’ preferences about the modality in which they would hire people with mental illness. Attitudes, work experience and contact with relatives prove to be significant direct and indirect predictors of the intention to hire.

KEYWORDS:

• Attitudes
• employability
• mental illness
• work discrimination
• scale development

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency.