WM: A comparison of African-Caribbean and White European young adults’ conceptions of schizophrenia symptoms and the diagnostic label

Background: Discrepancies in the experiences of different ethnic groups in mental health services exist, such as in the persistently higher rates of schizophrenia diagnosis found among the African-Caribbean population compared to the white European population in the UK. Some hypotheses consider whether this is due to greater stigmatizing attitudes to mental illness in the African-Caribbean community, leading individuals to avoid treatment-seeking and an increased incidence of schizophrenia. This study aimed to investigate recognition and evaluation of schizophrenic symptoms across African-Caribbean and white European individuals. Method: One hundred and twenty eight adult students from London colleges com-pleted a questionnaire assessing stigma beliefs, evaluation of symptoms as mental illness and help-seeking beliefs, in response to symptom vignettes. Results and Discussion: African-Caribbean participants indicated less stigmat-izing beliefs towards both the symptoms and diagnostic label of schizophrenia compared to the white European participants. White European participants were more likely to label vignettes as implying ‘mental illness ’ and also more likely to recommend professional health treatment. These results are inconsistent with a hypothesis that on average African-Caribbean people stigmatize schizophrenia more than white European people. While white European participants ’ beliefs were more likely to follow a western model of mental illness, African-Caribbean participants were more likely to have alternative beliefs. The infl uence of racial discrimination, mental illness knowledge and societal structures are discussed