IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v46y2000i2p101-109.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mental Illness Beliefs in Malaysia: Ethnic and Intergenerational Comparisons

Author

Listed:
  • Jeanne L. Edman

    (Dept. of Social Sciences, University of Hawaii-KCC, 4303 Diamond Head Rd., Honolulu, HI, 96816 USA)

  • Teh Yik Koon

    (School of Sosial Development, 06010 UUM, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah Darul Aman, Malaysia)

Abstract

Two groups of college students in Malaysia, ethnic Malay and ethnic Chinese, completed a mental illness attribution and help seeking questionnaire, and these responses were also compared with the responses of their mothers. As expected, ethnic Malays rated religious items, such as God and prayer, higher than the Chinese. However, both groups rated the social and psychological causes higher than religious, supernatural or physical causes. Contrary to our predictions, there were no intergenerational differences among either ethnic group. Medical pluralism was demonstrated, as a variety of apparently contradictory help seeking behaviors received quite high ratings including doctor/pharmacy, prayer, herbal medicine and traditional healers.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeanne L. Edman & Teh Yik Koon, 2000. "Mental Illness Beliefs in Malaysia: Ethnic and Intergenerational Comparisons," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 46(2), pages 101-109, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:46:y:2000:i:2:p:101-109
    DOI: 10.1177/002076400004600203
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002076400004600203
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/002076400004600203?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Massard, Josiane, 1988. "Doctoring by go-between: Aspects of health care for Malay children," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 27(8), pages 789-797, January.
    2. Elizabeth Elliot & Marian Pitts & John Mcmaster, 1992. "Nurses' Views of Parasuicide in a Developing Country," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 38(4), pages 273-279, December.
    3. Tapas Banerjee & G. Banerjee, 1995. "Determinants of Help-Seeking Behaviour in Cases of Epilepsy Attending a Teaching Hospital in India: an Indigenous Explanatory Model," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 41(3), pages 217-230, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Malcolm MacLachlan & Stuart C. Carr, 1994. "From Dissonance to Tolerance: Toward Managing Health in Tropical Cultures," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 6(2), pages 119-129, September.
    2. Viren Swami & Phik-Wern Loo & Adrian Furnham, 2010. "Public Knowledge and Beliefs About Depression Among Urban and Rural Malays in Malaysia," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 56(5), pages 480-496, September.
    3. Stuart C. Carr & Malcolm Maclachlan, 1998. "Psychology in Developing Countries: Reassessing its Impact," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 10(1), pages 1-20, March.
    4. Stuart C. Carr, 1996. "Social Psychology in Malawi: Historical or Developmental?," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 8(2), pages 177-197, September.
    5. Gauranga Banerjee & Suparna Roy, 1998. "Determinants of Help-Seeking Behaviour of Families of Schizophrenic Patients Attending a Teaching Hospital in India: an Indigenous Explanatory Model," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 44(3), pages 199-214, September.
    6. Malcolm Maclachlan & Tony Nyirenda & Clifford Nyando, 1995. "Attributions for Admission To Zomba Mental Hospital: Implications for the Development of Mental Health Services in Malawi," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 41(2), pages 79-87, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:46:y:2000:i:2:p:101-109. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.