Muslims' Perceptions and Attitudes to Mental Health

Proper study of the perceptions and attitudes of mental health in minority populations depends on valid and reliable measurements that are customized for each population. Currently, no other existing measure is tailored to the unique needs of Muslim women residing in the U.S. The Muslims’ Perceptions and Attitudes to Mental Health (M-PAMH) Scale was developed by adapting existing instruments in order to establish a psychometrically robust scale for the utilization in mental health care research when studying Muslim women. Scale validity was tested using data from 1,279 American Muslim women (mean age: 32.3) who anonymously completed a 40-item questionnaire hosted on a medical school website. The complete sample was randomly divided into roughly equivalent halves. The first half of the sample (n=623) was subjected to an exploratory factor analysis (EFA); a four-factor structure was indicated. The EFA pattern matrix was used to indicate the factor structure of a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with the remaining sample (n=656). Following this, 18 items indicated the proposed four-factor structure. The CFA demonstrated an excellent fit to the data, with small to moderate correlations between factors. The M-PAMH successfully assesses four important domains: rejection attitudes toward professional mental health care, cultural and religious beliefs about mental health, stigma associated with the usage of mental health services, and familiarity with formal mental health services.