Beliefs about dangerousness of people with mental health problems: the role of media reports and personal exposure to threat or harm

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the associations between beliefs about the dangerousness of people with mental health problems and exposure to media reports of violence or personal experiences of fear, threat or harm. Methods: Telephone interviews were carried out with 5220 Australians aged 18+. Respondents heard a vignette of a person with depression or early schizophrenia and were asked whether they believed him to be dangerous. Other questions covered past 12-month recall of media reports of violence and mental health problems, contact with and experiences of fear, threat or harm by people with mental health problems. Multinomial logistic regression was used to assess the associations between beliefs ..