Attitudes to Psychiatry among Swedish and Nicaraguan Medical Students: A Cross-Cultural Study
Attitudes to psychiatry were examined with the self-report questionnaire APT-30 among 60 Swedish and 130 Nicaraguan medical students who had entered the curriculum in psychiatry. There was a slight female dominance (54%). Nicaraguan students were from two different university sites. In general, the students from all sites had higher scores, indicating a more positive attitude, on the ATP-30 than has been reported from earlier studies in the 1980s. There were no cross-cultural differences between Swedish and Nicaraguan students with regard to overall attitude to psychiatry. Differences on subscales were in general small. Nicaraguan students expressed a significantly more positive attitude to psychiatric patients, but there were no cross-cultural differences on other subscales. Having a close relative with a mental disorder or being a religious person did not significantly influence attitudes in any university site. Gender was a clear discriminating factor. Female students had a significantly more positive ...