Table 2 Four factor item weights

Factor1 Community treatment and Biopsychosocial causation

 Increased spending on mental health services is not a waste of money.

0.850

 People with mental illness deserve our sympathy.

0.845

 We have a responsibility to provide the best possible care for people with mental illness.

0.790

 No-one has the right to exclude people with mental illness from their neighborhood.

0.790

 Locating mental health facilities in a residential area doesn't downgrade the neighborhood.

0.785

 We need to adopt a far more tolerant attitude toward people with mental illness in our society.

0.760

 Anyone with mental illness should be given responsibility.

0.733

 People with mental health problems should have the same rights to a job as anyone else.

0.722

 Virtually anyone can become mentally ill.

0.706

 Residents have nothing to fear from people coming to their neighborhood to obtain mental health services.

0.684

 Mental health services should be provided through community based facilities as far as possible.

0.650

 The best therapy for many people with mental illness is to be part of a normal community.

0.535

 It is not frightening to think of people with mental problems living in residential neighborhoods.

0.524

 Mental hospitals are an outdated means of treating people with mental illness.

-0.562

 Traumatic event or shock can cause mental illness

0.500

 Biological factors (other than brain disease or genetics) can cause mental illness.

0.490

 Drug or Alcohol misuse can cause mental illness.

0.462

 Genetic inheritance can cause mental illness.

0.437

Factor2 Socializing

 If somebody had been a former psychiatric patient, I would have them as a friend.

0.603

 If somebody who had been a former patient came to live next door to me, I would visit them.

0.518

 In interacting with someone with mental illness, I could maintain a friendship.

0.514

 I would invite somebody who suffered from mental illness into my home.

0.490

 I would occasionally greet somebody who had been a former patient and came to live next door to me.

0.455

 I would not object to having mentally ill people living in my neighborhood.

0.437

 I would have casual conversations with neighbors who had suffered from mental illness.

0.423

 I would be willing to work with somebody with a mental illness.

0.422

Factor3 Specific interactions

 In interacting with someone with mental illness, you were not upset or disturbed about working on the same job.

0.471

 Physical abuse cannot cause mental illness.

0.465

 People with mental illness are not a public nuisance.

0.426

 People with mental illness are not dangerous because of violent behavior.

0.423

 In interacting with someone with mental illness, I would not be unwilling to share a room.

0.414

 You would not avoid conversations with neighbors who had suffered from mental illness.

0.404

Factor4 Disbelief in witchcraft

 God's punishment cannot cause mental illness.

0.652

 Someone puts a curse on you cannot cause mental illness.

0.569

 Witchcraft cannot cause mental illness.

0.555

 Possession by evil spirits cannot cause mental illness.

0.543