Cultural Beliefs and Mental Health in Eha-Amufu Communities

Abstract

 Mental disorders impose a substantial and largely untreated burden in rural Nigeria, where supernatural explanations of illness, stigma, and reliance on spiritual and traditional healers shape how communities respond to psychological distress. Guided by Kleinman's explanatory models, stigma theory and the theory of planned behaviour, this survey examined how cultural beliefs about mental illness relate to social distance, attitudes toward professional help-seeking, and psychological distress among adults in Eha-Amufu, Isi-Uzo Local Government Area, Enugu State. A multistage cluster sample of 402 adults (response rate 95.0%) completed Igbo, English versions of a Supernatural Causal Beliefs Scale, a Traditional or Spiritual Healing Preference Scale, the Social Distance Scale, the ATSPPH-SF and the Kessler K10. All scales showed good internal consistency (α = .84–.90; ω = .84–.90). Controlling for age, gender, education and prior contact, supernatural causal beliefs predicted greater social distance (β = .41, p < .001, ΔR² = .155, f² = .20). Supernatural beliefs (β = −.23) and traditional healing preference (β = −.27) jointly explained additional variance in help-seeking attitudes (ΔR² = .162, f² = .22). Help-seeking attitudes partially mediated the association between supernatural beliefs and distress (indirect effect = 0.93, 95% bootstrap CI [0.55, 1.37]), accounting for 44.2% of the total effect. Culturally grounded mental health literacy programmes that engage faith and traditional leaders are recommended.