A Vignette-Based Measure of Mental Health Literacy (PDR-V): Reliability, Validity, and Mindfulness Associations in a Cross-Sectional Sample

TL;DR

This study introduces a new tool to assess mental health literacy using vignettes and finds it reliably measures disorder recognition and is linked to mindfulness traits.

Contribution

The study introduces and validates a new vignette-based measure of mental health literacy called the PDR-V.

Findings

The PDR-V showed excellent internal consistency with a KR-20 of 0.83.

Higher PDR-V scores were associated with prior psychotherapy exposure, mental health diagnosis history, and specific mindfulness facets.

Bipolar disorder had the highest recognition, while generalized anxiety had the lowest accuracy in identification.

Abstract

Psychological distress impacts a large portion of the general population. While effective treatments are available, few seek them out. This lack of treatment seeking may be due to several factors, particularly low mental health literacy (MHL). MHL is the knowledge an individual has regarding psychological disorders and their symptoms, treatments, and where to seek appropriate help when identified. The capacity to pay attention to present-moment experiences in MHL translates to the qualities of dispositional mindfulness (DM), the capacity to pay non-judgmental attention to present-moment experiences. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the reliability and preliminary convergent validity of a newly developed, vignette-based assessment of psychological disorder recognition. A total of N = 299 participants were recruited via TurkPrime and completed measures of DM (FFMQ), MHL (MHLS), depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), and treatment-seeking attitudes (MHSAS). Participants were subsequently asked to read newly created vignettes based on ICD-11 criteria of major depressive, generalized anxiety, social anxiety, bipolar disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia. Participants then responded to questions assessing the recognition of disorder presence and identification. The vignettes with accompanying questions were titled the Psychological Disorder Recognition—Vignette (PDR-V) task. The PDR-V evidenced a Kuder–Richardson Formula 20 (KR-20) of 0.83, indicating excellent internal consistency. Independent sample t-tests indicated that participants with prior psychotherapy exposure, a history of mental health diagnosis, and, unexpectedly, those reporting lower education levels and no current mindfulness practice, scored significantly higher on the PDR-V. Spearman correlations revealed that higher scores on a validated MHL scale and specific facets of DM (describe, act with awareness) were positively correlated with PDR-V scores. Bipolar disorder evidenced the highest recognition as a psychological problem broadly, while social anxiety had the highest specific disorder identification accuracy rates. Generalized anxiety disorder had the lowest recognition and identification accuracy. While the PDR-V demonstrated promising preliminary psychometric properties, it also observed anomalies that warrant further investigation, as findings are limited by its cross-sectional nature. These findings suggest that the PDR-V is a versatile tool for differentiating the presence of a problem and accurately identifying the condition, supporting its potential as a reliable and sound measure.