Cultural Variations in Mental Health Literacy: A Survey Study on Awareness and Perceptions of Personality Disorders

Aims: The study aims to assess the mental health literacy (MHL) of lay individuals from Kenya, Mexico and Portugal with regards to personality disorders (PD’s), ascertaining potential patterns, differences and/or similarities in mental health literacy across various cultures. Methods: about 100 participants from each of the target countries were administered with an online questionnaire created through Qualtrics, which included a vignette identification task (Furnham & Winceslaus, 2011). This entailed participants having to label and rate hypothetical people with seven personality disorders, and rating several questions about the aforementioned hypothetical individuals and their lives, such as ‘how successful at his work do you think Barry is?’ Or ‘how satisfying do you think Jessica’s personal relationships are? On a 5 point likert scale. A semi-structured, qualitative interview was also conducted to obtain a deeper insight into people’s views on personality disorders and mental illness in general, specifically from Kenya. Results: I am still in the process of data analysis and therefore have not yet obtained the results, but the predictions are as follows: 1) cultural differences in MHL: participants from Kenya, Mexico, and Portugal will show different levels of success in labelling the personality disorders presented in the vignettes, 2) low general recognition rates: the majority of participants, regardless of their cultural background, will not correctly label the personality disorders, indicating a widespread lack of recognition, 3) age and recognition: younger participants will demonstrate greater success in recognizing and labelling the personality disorders compared to older participants, 4) influence of personal experience: participants with a personal history of mental health treatment will show increased accuracy in recognizing and labelling personality disorders compared to those without such experience and 5) variation in appraisals based on culture: participants from different countries will rate attributes such as happiness, work success, and quality of relationships differently, reflecting cultural variations in perceptions of personality disorders. Data is currently being analysed through statistical programs such as SPSS and Stata.