(PS10-100) The effects of education-entertainment on stigma and self stigma in an undergraduate Movies and Mental Illness course

The few studies examining the effectiveness of education-entertainment stigma reduction are typically conducted with community members or medical students. The results indicate they have promise for reducing public stigma in communities and medical students.  The educational aspects of these interventions focus on recognizing symptoms of people living with mental illness and explaining the effects of stigma on individuals.  The few studies examining the effectiveness of these interventions show that they have promise for reducing public stigma in communities and medical students. The education-entertainment intervention used in the present study targets undergraduate Psychology students, examines the effects of the intervention on self-stigma, and has learning objectives that go beyond the recognition of symptoms of people with mental health conditions.  Specifically, the course seeks to increase students’ capacities to appreciate the strengths of the person living with mental health conditions and perform behaviors consistent with inclusion and support of people with mental health conditions.  We predict that the experience will reduce students’ stigma because they will be performing behaviors (talking about mental health conditions) that induce cognitive dissonance, and their absorption in the movie narrative will be disrupted (making systematic observations while viewing movies).  The Movies and Mental Illness course (MMI) in the Fresno State Psychology Department enrolls first generation students and many are from immigrant families. Fifty of them completed the Docksey, et al., (2018) Stigma and Self-Stigma Scale on the first and last days of two sections of the course offered in each semester of the 2024-25 academic year.  Eight on-line movie modules had information about the symptoms and treatment of several mental health conditions along with the challenges associated with living with mental illness.   After reviewing the information, students watched the movie and took notes on the character with mental illnesses’ symptoms, personal strengths,  prosocial behaviors, and efforts to change.  Immediately after the movie they took surveys that evaluated their perceptions of the character’s social desirability and intended support and inclusion activities.  During class, they discussed their observations and feelings about the movie and reviewed survey results.  An important class activity was a course based research experience in which they recruited friends and family to watch Silver Linings Playbook, take a survey, and meet to talk about the movie.  We use a repeated measure ANOVA to evaluate pre-post class differences in stigma and self-stigma.  And, we analyze the interaction between pre-post course and students’ personal experiences of mental illness as providers, peers, and/or family members and stigma.