Self-Worth and Self-Stigma among Students with Lived Experience of Mental Disorder in Nyahururu, Kenya

Abstract

The overall purpose of this article is to explore whether self-worth self-narratives have implications on self-stigma among students with lived experience of mental disorder under St Martin, Mental Health Programme in Nyahururu Town, Kenya. Mental disorder self-stigma reduces a student’s ability to contribute towards the social and economic development of the country. Research on mental health self-stigma among students in Kenya has focused on self-stigma as a construct of social stigma, omitting the individual’s role in self-stigmatisation. Rational Emotive Behavioural and Person-Centred theories were employed. An Interpretive Phenomenological design was utilised. The target population was 29 student beneficiaries with lived experience of stress, depression, anxiety, substance abuse and attempted suicide. Proportionate simple random procedure and purposive sampling were used to select a sample of 10 students and four mental health service providers. Data was collected face to face through an interview schedule and analysed manually through data immersion, initial coding, thematic clustering, interpretation of themes, contextualisation and write-up of findings. Results were presented through narratives as emergent themes, participant quotations and the researcher's commentary. Findings were personal appraisal on worthiness, and family and social feedback impacted how the students were likely to evaluate their self-worth. Conclusions were that self-worth had implications on self-stigma among students with lived experience of mental disorder. Counselling professionals working with affected students should aim at targeted interventions that boost positive self-worth narratives so as to mitigate mental disorder self-stigma among those students with experience of mental disorder as a way of improving their academic and social outcomes.