Is Mental Illness like Any Other Medical Illness? Causal Attributions, Supportive Communication and the Social Withdrawal Inclination of People with Chronic Mental Illnesses in China.

The saying "mental illness is like any other illness" has increasingly become pervasive in promoting mental health literacy among the public in China. This discourse is based on the fact that mental illness is attributed to primarily biogenetic causes. This study comprises an investigation of the impact of causal attributions of mental illness on the social withdrawal inclination of people with chronic mental illnesses (PCMIs) in China. Drawing on attribution theory and a sample of PCMIs, the current authors further question the effectiveness of biogenetic discourse to combat social stigma and to integrate PCMIs into society. In addition, in response to the proliferation of discussion on the digital inclusion of those with mental disabilities, this study constructs a structural model in which the varied effects of supportive communication are used as bridging factors, including face-to-face, telephonic and social media communication. The results indicate a stronger social withdrawal inclination when the PCMIs attributed their illnesses to biogenetic causes. In addition, biogenetic attribution was also found to potentially hinder the PCMIs from using the telephone and social media to seek supportive communication, while psychosocial attribution was found to have potential to combat PCMIs' social withdrawal inclination. In this vein, this study calls for further investigation on the conditional factors upon which digital inclusion might work for PCMIs in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]