Associations between parental attitudes towards mental illness and self-reported mental health among young people: Evidence from the Health Survey for England

Abstract

ABSTRACTBackgroundThe prevalence of mental health problems among young adults has rapidly increased over the past decade. The argument that reductions in stigma lead to less under-reporting over time is often presented as a potential explanation. As a first step towards understanding how stigma influence self-reporting in this age group, we examine the extent to which parents’ attitudes are related to young people’s self-reported mental health.MethodsWe leveraged the household design of the 2014 Health Survey for England to test whether mothers’ (complete-casen= 630) and fathers’ (n= 428) prejudice and tolerance towards people with mental illness is associated with the self-reporting of any specific mental disorder and non-specific psychological distress (GHQ-12) in participants aged 13-24. Associations were tested in random-intercept Poisson models (nesting participants in households) adjusting for parents’ sociodemographics and mental health, and participants’ own sociodemographics.ResultsMothers were on average less prejudiced (81.2 versus 74.1 out of 100) but as tolerant (72.0 versus 70.0 out of 100) as fathers. In fully-adjusted models: 1) those with a less prejudiced (PR for a one-unit increase = 1.036, 95%CI 1.007-1.066) and more tolerant (PR = 1.038, 95%CI 1.011-1.066) mother had a higher probability of reporting a mental disorder; 2) those with a less prejudiced (PR = 1.034, 95%CI 1.006-1.062) father had a higher probability of reporting a mental disorder; 3) those with a more tolerant father also had a higher probability of reporting a high level of psychological distress (PR = 1.024, 95%CI 1.008-1.041).ConclusionParents’ attitudes were associated with their children’s mental health, more so with specific mental disorders compared with non-specific psychological distress. New data collection efforts are needed to understand changes in parental attitudes over time and its relationship with self-reporting among young people.