The experience of mental illness stigma by undergraduate university students

Abstract

Mental illness stigma continues to negatively influence students’ help-seeking behaviour, deteriorating their mental well-being and overall functioning. This research study aims to explore and understand how undergraduate university students in South Africa experience mental illness stigma, including how it affects their perceptions of mental illness and their decision to seek mental health care. The study used a qualitative approach, and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine participants across various faculties about their experiences in their undergraduate studies. The findings revealed that students experience both public and self-stigma. Additionally, cultural and religious beliefs and the views of one's family and community members perpetuated these stigmas. It is important to note that even though students do not ascribe to these stigmatised views due to their increased mental health literacy, they are still affected by the beliefs and ideas of those close to them. Because of this, students would rather utilise their social support and use other forms of adaptive and maladaptive coping techniques to deal with their mental health challenges. It is recommended that future studies expand the idea of this study to a larger student population to obtain more generalised findings.