Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Attitudes About Mental Illness Among Seminary Students: a Qualitative Analysis

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Religion and Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Tragically, a majority of people with mental illness never seek treatment; however, people may be more likely to seek help from religious clergy than from mental health professionals. In the current study, 25 Protestant seminary students were interviewed. The majority of students considered there to be biological, spiritual, and environmental causes of mental illness and favored psychological, medication, or spiritual treatments. Some participants reported stigma of mental illness, including avoidance and “dangerous” stereotypes. Religious clergy are frontline mental health providers, and their attitudes about mental illness are critical in reducing stigma and increasing treatment seeking among people with mental illness.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Funding

This study was funded by an Anderson University Faculty Development Grant (Category I Scholarly Research).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Laura G. Stull.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

No disclosures for any author.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Stull, L.G., Harness, J., Miller, M. et al. Attitudes About Mental Illness Among Seminary Students: a Qualitative Analysis. J Relig Health 59, 2595–2610 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01045-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01045-0

Keywords

Navigation