Opinions about Mental Illness among Primary School Teacher Trainees in Kenya

Abstract

This study aimed to determine and document the opinions about mental illness among public primary teacher trainees in Kenya. Convenience sampling was used to identify four public teacher colleges out of the twenty. Self-administered demographic questionnaire and opinions about mental illness scale were presented to the participants to collect data. The OMI consisted of five factors of authoritarianism, benevolence, social restrictiveness, mental hygiene ideology and interpersonal etiology. Ethical protocol was followed from getting authority to informed consent from the participants. Out of the 2925questionnaires presented, 2777 were returned fully filled, a return rate of 94.34%. Summative scores indicated moderate towards more negative opinions about mental illness, with significant differences in year of study, gender, marital status, or ever taught before coming to college. There was a correlation between all the OMI factors. This study found negative opinions about mental illness among these participants and recommended on an intervention in order to improve attitudes towards help in seeking help