Study instruments

Measures were rated using an adapted version of the UK Pinfold questionnaire, which collects information about knowledge of mental illness, attitude towards, and desire for social distance from persons with mental illness [10], and had been adapted, translated and validated for use in Nigeria [13].

The terms, ‘mental health problems’ and ‘Schizophrenia’ in the questionnaire were replaced with ‘Mental illness’ and ‘Psychosis’ respectively. This was based on findings that ‘mental health problems’ and ‘Schizophrenia’ were confusing and strange terms to Nigerian pupils [13].

Four factual statements on post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychosis, substance abuse, suicide, and self-harm were added to the adapted version based on the most common mental illnesses in Nigeria. There were 15 knowledge items in all, including statements such as, “One in four people will develop mental illness over the course of a lifetime”, “People can recover from mental illness”, “Bullying is a risk factor for suicide”, “People with post traumatic stress disorder often suffer from flashback and nightmares”. There were 8 attitude items including statements such as “People with mental illness are always difficult to talk to”, “People with mental illness are likely to become violent”, “People with mental illness are weak and have only themselves to blame”, “People with depression always like to be alone, feel sad & wish to die”. All knowledge and attitude items were rated on a Likert scale of “agree”, “disagree”, and “not sure”.

Four statements assessing social distance were rated “definitely”, “probably”, “probably not”, “definitely not” and “don’t know”. Sample questions include: “Would you feel afraid to talk to someone with mental illness?”, “Would you be upset to be in the same class with someone who had mental illness?”, “Would you be able to be friends with someone who had mental illness?”, “Would you be embarrassed if your friends knew that someone in your close family has a mental illness?”

Another questionnaire which was researcher-designed was used to collect information on participants’ evaluation of the mental health training programme. It consisted of open-ended statements and questions rated ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Sample of open-ended questions include “What did you like about the information you received?” “What did you not like about the information you received?”