The relationship between health locus of control and internalized stigma levels of patients diagnosed with mental illness

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between health locus of control and internalized stigma levels of psychiatric patients and predict the effect of health locus of control on self-stigma levels. Participants were 159 psychiatric patients who applied to the Research and Application Hospital of Adnan Menderes University. The patients who applied to healthcare commission or forensics commission were not included in the study to prevent confounding findings. Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale and Internelized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale were administered to participants. Multilinear Regression Analyses were used for statistical analyses. Results showed that, the best predictor of internalized stigma level was chance health locus of control. Both chance health locus of control and internal health locus of control scores were correlated to internalized stigma scores. Accordingly, patients who had higher scores on chance health locus of control also had higher scores on self-stigma. In contrast, participants who had higher scores on internal health locus of control had lower scores on internalized stigma scale. Furthermore, the relationship between demographic variables, pathologic variables related to the diagnosis and the aforementioned scale scores were investigated. The results and limitations of the study were discussed in acordance to the literature.