Abstract
The global and local presence of mental illness stigma continues to surface with adverse consequences. Low familiarity with mental illness and poor education have been implicated as possible factors contributing to the public stigmatisation of mental illness. There is limited and inconsistent research investigating education, mental illness familiarity, and mental illness attitudes within particular religious groups in South Africa. Mental illness is deeply rooted in a system of meaning prescribed by these religions which emphasises their importance. This study aimed to describe mental illness familiarity and mental illness attitudes, examine whether mental illness familiarity predicted attitudes, and assess whether education level moderated the relationship between mental illness familiarity and attitudes. A purposive, criterion sample was drawn consisting of 119 Muslim community members residing in South Africa. Data was collected by means of a self-administered electronic questionnaire containing sociodemographic information, the Familiarity with Mental Illness scale, and the Beliefs toward Mental Illness scale. All data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that participants were less familiar with mental illness and more neutral or positive in their attitudes towards mental illness. There was no significant relationship found between mental illness familiarity and attitudes. Similarly, education level was not a significant moderator of the relationship between mental illness familiarity and attitudes. However, the interesting negative effect of education level on the relationship between mental illness familiarity and attitudes suggested that increased levels of education and mental illness familiarity may decrease negative mental illness attitudes. These findings highlight that anti-stigma interventions in mental health are to be informed by current research on mental illness across religious groups to ensure efficacy and efficiency in their implementation.
Keywords: attitudes, education, familiarity, Islam, mental illness, South Africa