| Research findings from the Western countries have consistently supported the attribution model, demonstrating that stigma towards persons with mental illness is influenced by attributions about the causes of their illness and personal responsibility beliefs. Employing the framework of the attribution model (Corrigan, Markowitz, Watson, Rowan & Kubiak, 2003; Weiner, 1985), the current study examined whether attribution theory could be applied in Chinese culture to understand Chinese college students' attitude towards people with mental illness. In addition, an alternative severity model was proposed to explain possible psychological mechanisms influencing severity appraisal and mental illness stigma. Using an experimental design with hypothetical vignettes, the relationships between causal attributions (e.g., controllability, responsibility), severity, emotional responses (e.g., pity, fear, shame-anger), and helping and coercive responses were estimated in a sample of 293 college students from two universities in China. Results from the hierarchical regression analyses only partially supported the attribution model. Consistent with attribution theory, the causes of mental illness affected responsibility beliefs, which, in turn, led to emotional responses that influenced willingness to help. However, when coercion was the outcome variable, the findings did not support the attribution model as the effect of responsibility was not mediated by the controllability of cause. Consistent with a severity hypothesis, the effects of severity on both helping and coercion were not mediated by responsibility beliefs, but operated directly via shame-anger and fear. Severity was also found to moderate the relationship between helping and coercion. Overviews of the conceptual and methodological limitations in applying the attribution model to study mental illness stigma in China as well as practical implications for stigma reduction intervention, and directions for future research are discussed. This research contributes to the ongoing knowledge pertaining to mental illness stigma and identification of culturally specific factors, mechanisms, and processes associated with stigma towards persons with mental illness in China, thus providing valuable insights into the development of culturally-sensitive anti-stigma interventions. |
