Mental Health Literacy Among University Students

Mental health literacy has been defined as “knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition,management and prevention”.This research adopts the conceptual structure of mental health literacy which contains knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders and attitude toward patients with mental illness.The first part covers knowledge and beliefs of the recognition,causes,consequences and treatment methods of mental illness.The second part contains the emotional reactions and behavior disposition towards patients with mental illness.Good mental literacy can help people deal with one's own or others' mental health problems better.Research on mental health literacy will provide basis for improving the level of knowledge about people's psychological health,setting up the correct belief about mental health,and promoting the use of mental health services resources and reducing damage of mental diseases.The study contains two aspects.On the one hand,this study takes the students of freshmen and senior college in Wuhan as the research object,and try to find out the status and problems of mental health literacy in the way of questionnaire.On the other hand,some Suggestions and countermeasures are put forward to easily understand how to promote college students' mental health literacy from the macro and micro perspectives by interviews with mental health education practitioners,counselors and college students.The results are as follows:In study 1,we conducted a questionnaire survey in order to understand the present situation of college students' mental health literacy in the new period and the existing problems.The results indicated:(1)73.2%,62.8%,72.8%,62.8% and 76.1% of college students can respectively defined obsessive-compulsive disorder,social disorder,depression,schizophrenia and anxiety properly as mental problems;36.9%,10.8%,20.8%,10.8% and 3.4% of college students can respectively label above five kinds of specific type of mental illnesses correctly as obsessive-compulsive disorder,social disorder,depression,schizophrenia and anxiety.(2)College students think that "personal character and views" and "too much pressure" are the main causes of mental illness,followed by "in a bad mood or long-term depression","experienced setbacks and blows","interpersonal relationships","the causes of the general mood of society and social environment" and "a bad family relationship or family atmosphere".College students think that it is impossible that "the brain has a problem or physical defect" and " seasonalor climatic reasons" lead to mental disease".(3)College students think that the most likely cause of mental illness is "bad mood,very painful",followed by "increasing economic and mental burdens on family members ","it is difficult to success" and "do extreme things,hurt himself or endanger his own life".College students think that it is unlikely for mental illnesses to lead to "life is destroyed","insanity,the brain doesn't work" and "lost family,abandoned by society".(4)The most recognized treatment of psychological disease by college students is "relax,release the pressure,stay cheerful","do psychological adjustment herself to be open-minded and cheerful","do some psychological treatments such as Psychological counseling",followed by "strengthen own learning or do what you love","confided to friends and family","the company and guide of family and friends","let him exercise and improve his nutrition" and "national and social care and help".College students think "family control or political control" has little effect on the treatment of patients with mental illnesses.(5)The typical feeling of the college student to the patients is sympathy and pity,and their most typical behavior tendency to the patients is "understanding and caring" and "tolerance and help".College students say they are unlikely for people with mental illnesses to be "discriminating and even bullying them" and "gloating and even laughing at them".In study 2,combining with conclusions in research 1,countermeasures and suggestions have been put forward to improve college students' mental health literacy by case interviews.The results indicated:(1)The goal of improving mental health literacy of college students mainly includes three aspects: First,we need to enhance college students' ability to recognise,prevente and cope well with mental disorder;Second,to average up the level of college students' mental health and to improve their mental state;Third,to promote the community's attention and tolerance on patients with mental illness.(2)Mental health literacy of college students is affected by the following factors:individual factors such as early growing experience and contact with patients,family factors such as family education,parents' knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders,university factors such as propaganda of knowledge about mental health,psychological teachers level,social factors such as the popularization of knowledge about mental health,the public's knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders,professional practitioners and financial support provided by the government and society,media factors such as negative reports about mental disorders by the news media.(3)The key content of college students' mental health literacy intervention mainly involves two aspects: theincrease of college students' knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders,and the decrease of negative attitude towards patients with mental disorders.(4)The ways and methods of promotion of college students' mental health literacy mainly include self intervention,parent-school joint intervention,social intervention and Internet or media'intervention.(5)The promotion of college students' mental health literacy should be aimed mainly at male college students,the Han nationality and the students of natural sciences.Research conclusion:(1)in the identification of mental illness,probability of defining mental illness correctly is higher than the probability of lablling mental illness accurately;mental health education or propaganda should focus on improving the ability of college students to recognize the symptoms of common types of mental illnesses;college students believe that "personality and ideological issues" and "high pressure" are the paramount causes of mental illness;the most likely consequence of mental illness is "be in a bad mood and miserable";the most recognized treatments of mental illnesses among college students are self-help and professional help,followed by non-professional help;college students have a positive attitude toward people with mental illness.(2)The strategies to promote college students' mental health literacy mainly focus on the goal of the promotion,the influencing factors,the key content of the intervention and intervening approaches.The promotion of college students' mental health literacy should be aimed mainly at male college students,the Han nationality and the students of natural sciences.