The Knowledge and Attitude of Primary School Teachers towards Mental Illness | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

The primary object of the study was to administer the standardized scale which measures the knowledge possessed regarding mental illness and the attitude towards mental illness. The scale was administered on primary school teachers from both urban and rural localities from three distinct places in Karnataka. The schools in urban Bangalore, schools in rural Ramanagar and Udupi were taken into account. The scales were administered on 200 primary school teachers which includes both male and female. The between group design, correlative study design is used to conduct the research. The attitude scale was developed by Prabhu (1983) with 30 items. The knowledge scale with 20 item was modified by the researcher MS. Gnanaguruvammal. G (2010) was administered to the sample of 200 participants by using purposive sampling technique. Detailed instructions were given to the participants and the responses were obtained which was later scored. The obtained scores were subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS version 20. t test was done to find out the differences between the knowledge and attitude possessed by the teachers in rural and urban areas and the correlation was done to find the relationship between the knowledge possessed and the attitude that they hold towards the mentally ill.Higher the knowledge minimizes the stigma(t= -19.99)There is a significant relationship between the knowledge possessed and the attitude towards mental illness (r=0.511).The knowledge possessed by the teachers in rural area differs from the teachers in urban areas (t=5.96).There is a significant difference in the attitude possessed by teachers in urban and rural areas(t=13.686)