Background: Children tend to lack knowledge of, and hold negative attitudes towards mental illness. However, most of the work undertaken in Nigeria has been done with adults.
Aims: To establish the views and knowledge about mental health and illness in pupils at four secondary schools in rural and urban Southwest Nigeria.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey based on a questionnaire previously used in the UK and adapted to Nigeria.
Results: Data from 145 Nigerian schoolchildren showed little knowledge of, negative attitudes and social distance towards persons with mental health problems. Urban participants and boys appeared less knowledgeable than rural children and girls.
Conclusions: Nigerian schoolchildren, as with Nigerian adults and young people in Western countries, show stigma towards mental illness. This may be underpinned by a lack of knowledge regarding mental health problems. Educational interventions need to be appropriate to area, age and gender to effectively improve mental health literacy, which in turn will influence attitudes and social distance. However, the fact that the schoolchildren were optimistic about recovery is a strength that could be built upon.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1359104511410804 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Background: Mental health remains among the top 10 leading causes of disease burden globally, and there is a significant treatment gap due to limited resources, stigma, limited accessibility, and low perceived need for treatment. Problem Management Plus, a World Health Organization-endorsed brief psychological intervention for mental health disorders, has been shown to be effective and cost-effective in various countries globally but faces implementation challenges, such as quality control in training, supervision, and delivery. While digital technologies to foster mental health care have the potential to close treatment gaps and address the issues of quality control, their development requires context-specific, interdisciplinary, and participatory approaches to enhance impact and acceptance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTemperature Exposure and Psychiatric Symptoms in Adolescents From 2 European Birth Cohorts.
JAMA Netw Open
January 2025
ISGlobal, Barcelona, Spain.
Importance: Climate change can adversely affect mental health, but the association of ambient temperature with psychiatric symptoms remains poorly understood.
Objective: To assess the association of ambient temperature exposure with internalizing, externalizing, and attention problems in adolescents from 2 population-based birth cohorts in Europe.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study analyzed data from the Dutch Generation R Study and the Spanish INMA (Infancia y Medio Ambiente) Project.
Brain Function Outcomes of Recent and Lifetime Cannabis Use.
JAMA Netw Open
January 2025
Laboratory of NeuroImaging, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Bethesda, Maryland.
Importance: Cannabis use has increased globally, but its effects on brain function are not fully known, highlighting the need to better determine recent and long-term brain activation outcomes of cannabis use.
Objective: To examine the association of lifetime history of heavy cannabis use and recent cannabis use with brain activation across a range of brain functions in a large sample of young adults in the US.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional study used data (2017 release) from the Human Connectome Project (collected between August 2012 and 2015).
Attitudes towards healthy eating and its determinants among older adults in a deprived region of Hungary: implications for the National Healthy Aging Program.
Geroscience
January 2025
Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
A healthy diet is a key determinant of successful aging. However, the psychological, social, and physiological changes associated with ageing often disrupt dietary behaviours. Hungary has one of the highest rates of chronic age-related diseases in the European Union, exacerbated by unhealthy dietary patterns and rapid population aging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!