Awareness and education on mental disorders in teenagers reduce stigma for mental illness: a preliminary study

Methods A group of high-school students aged between 16 and 18 years underwent a training consisting of four instructive and interactive lessons with multimedia material. Students completed Haghighat’s Standardized Stigmatization Questionnaire (SSQ) to assess stigmatising processes before the first lesson and at the end of the last lesson. Results Students showed a significant reduction of stigma attributed to mental disorders by other members of the community after the acquisition of new information about mental health.