Mental Health Literacy and Attitudes about Mental Disorders among Younger and Older Adults: A Preliminary Study

Mental health literacy refers to knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, management, or prevention. Little is known about the mental health literacy of older adults, a population known to under-utilize mental health services. In this study, a new measure of mental health literacy, the Symptom Identification Scale (SIS), was created to measure knowledge about symptoms of anxiety, depression, mania, and personality disorders. Younger adults (N = 409; M age = 20.2 years) and older adults (N = 40; M age = 71.6 years) completed the SIS and a measure of attitudes about mental disorders. Participants were most knowledgeable about symptoms of depression (60% correct) with relatively limited knowledge about personality disorders (34% correct), anxiety disorders (33% correct), and mania (30% correct). Regarding age-differences, two effects approached significance: younger adults had greater knowledge about anxiety disorders (p < .07) whereas older adults had greater knowledge about personality disorders (p < .06). Regarding attitudes, older adults expressed more favorable attitudes about depression (p < .05) and mania (p < .03) than younger adults. Across age groups, women were able to accurately identify more symptoms of depression (p < .001) than men, and women had more favorable attitudes toward anxiety (p < .006) and depression (p < .003) than men. These results show generally poor mental health literacy across age groups, although older adults expressed more positive attitudes about some disorders. An implication is that vigorous educational efforts are needed to improve knowledge about mental disorders, as this is a primary barrier to seeking services.

Keywords: aging, elderly, mental health literacy, Symptoms Identification Scale, personality disorders.