Abstract

• This descriptive-comparative study attempted to examine the differences acording to the year in college of 288 junior college nursing students attitudes about mental illness. The instrument used for this study was the O.M.I (Opinion about Mental Illness) scale developed by Cohen and Struening. Data collection was done from the 27th to the 30th of September, 1988 by means of a questionnaire. Data were analyzed by computer, using the t-test and Analysis of Variance. The findings of this study are as follows : 1. Hypothesis I : "There will be a difference in attitudes toward mental illness according to the year in college." (1) "There will be a difference in the attitude about authoritarianism-according to the year in college."was rejected (F=.5675, P=.5676). (2) "There will be a difference in the attitude about benevolence-according to the year in college." was accepted (F=.5376, P=.5848). (3) "There will be a difference in the attitude about mental hygiene ideology-according to."was accepted (F=17.3497, P=.0000). (4) "There will be a difference in the attitude about social restrictiveness-according to"was rejected (F=1.7416, P=. 1771). (5) "There win be a difference in the attitude about interpersonal etiology-according to"was accepted (F=10.8597, P=.0000). 2. Hypothesis II : "There will bed difference in attitudes toward mental illness." according to whether or not the student have had clinical practice in the psychiatric ward. (1) There will be a difference in the attitudes about authoritarianism-according to "whether or not the student's have had clinical practice in the psychiatric ward was rejected(t=.59, p=.555). (2) "Whether they have had clinical practice at the psychiatric ward or not, There will be difference in the attitudes about benevolence." was rejected (t=1.34, p=.182). (3) "Whether they have had clinical practice at the psychiatric ward or not, there will be difference of the mental hygiene ideology attitude." was accepted(t=2.72, p=.00). (4) "Whether they have had clinical practice at the psychiatric ward or not, there will be difference of the social restrictiveness attitude." was rejected (t=-.59, p=.557). (5) "Whether they have had clinical practice at the psychiatric ward or not, there will be difference of te interpersonal etiology-attitude." was accepted(t=3.55,p=.001). In conclusion, it was found that the higher the year in College, the more positive the attitudes are about mental hygiene ideology and interpersonal etiology. This study suggests that more positive attifudes about psychiatric illness can be induced by a more effective educational experience. The main limitation of this study was that the sociocultural background of Korea is not considered in the O.M.I scale.

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