The evaluation of the program "Prejudices...I did not know!" by high school students

This paper presents an evaluation of the impact of a program designed to reduce negative attitudes in adolescents towards individuals suffering from mental illness and their relatives. In a quasi-experimental design involving 16 senior high school classes, a group of 214 students participating in the prevention program "Les préjugés ... j'connais pas!" completed a knowledge questionnaire, a questionnaire focusing on attitudes towards persons with mental illness and a social distance instrument, and were compared to a control group of 159 adolescents. Results indicate that high school students participating in the prevention program show greater knowledge and report more favourable attitudes towards individuals with mental illness than control students. Moreover, data suggest that those students who took part in the program are less negative about social relationships with people who have mental illness problems.