Despite the prevalence of mental health problems, society continues to stigmatize and discriminate against people with mental illness and in particular, schizophrenia. Among the negative consequences of stigma, is that some individuals with mental illness internalize negative stereotypes about themselves, referred to as self-stigma, which is…

The Adolescent Depression Awareness Program, developed by psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is a depression literacy program delivered to high school students by teachers. This mode of delivery represents an effective and sustainable way to increase awareness of mental health, reduce stigma,…

The study presented in this report evaluates the effects of a school-based theatrical performance "Walk In Our Shoes" on a group of predominantly Latino youth in Santa Barbara County, California. The performance follows the lives of four (fictional) high school students and introduces their various experiences with both mental health…

Research in the area of public stigma and Alzheimer disease (AD) is attracting increased attention in the last years. However, studies are limited to assessing the topic among adult persons. The aims of this study were to assess stigmatic beliefs toward a person with AD in high-school students and to examine whether majority-minority status is…

Adolescents are at increased risk of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the Southern states of the USA, where rates among youth are higher than in the rest of the nation. This paper reports on findings from a pilot study of an HIV prevention intervention that uses interactive theatre to educate young people about sexual health. The…

Bed bugs are on the rise and are increasingly perceived as harmful parasites. Because individuals affected by bed bugs often feel disgust and shame and are stigmatized, bed bugs are an important public health and environmental justice concern and therefore a health education issue as well. In this quasi-experimental study, we examine how different…

This study was designed to evaluate potential preventive effects of a cultural adaption of the Focus on Kids (FOK) program among Chinese adolescents through a quasi-experimental intervention trial in Nanjing, China. High school students were assigned to either experimental groups (n = 140) or control groups (n = 164) by schools (with three schools…

Self-stigma is a phenomenon in which negative public stereotypes about mental illness are internalized and can undermine help-seeking. Unfortunately, little is known about how self-stigmatization relates to positive well-being indicators among youth. A sample of 134 high school students completed established measures of self-stigma, well-being,…

Stigma associated with seeking help has been found to be a key help-seeking barrier, however its role is less clear for: (a) adolescents, (b) groups outside the United States and (c) different types of therapy. This study addresses these omissions by examining the relationships between perceptions of public stigma of mental illness and the…

In the current study, we investigated whether adolescents high in perfectionism are prone to experiencing self-stigma for seeking psychological help. This work is based on the premise that the need to seek help for psychological difficulties is not consistent with idealistic personal goals of perfectionistic young people and their desire to retain…

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) youth experience more heterosexist bullying victimization than their straight peers, which contributes to mental health disparities. However, LGBQ youth may simultaneously experience other types of bias-based bullying (e.g., racist, cis-sexist, and able-ist bullying). Informed by intersectionality theory,…

Research suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the need for mental health support, with an alarming increase in the number of adolescents reporting that their mental health has worsened during this period (Rodriguez, 2022). Well before the pandemic, substantial evidence indicated that young people were facing a rising tide of…

Background: teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA) is an Australian school-based universal program for grade 10 to 12 students. tMHFA teaches teens how to recognize and respond to a peer in crisis or experiencing mental health concerns. Methods: Schools implementing tMHFA in 2019 and 2020 were propensity score matched, yielding a sample of…

Approximately one out of every three or four youths worldwide will meet the criteria for a formal mental health disorder in their lifetime (Costello, Mustillo, Keller, & Angold, 2004). Considering that approximately half of all mental disorders have onset by 14 years of age (World Health Organization, 2014), it is important to be mindful of…

In an effort to decrease the suicide rate in adolescents, many interventions have focused on school-based suicide prevention programs. Alternatively, depression education in schools might be effective in decreasing the morbidity, mortality, and stigma associated with adolescent depression. The Adolescent Depression Awareness Program (ADAP)…