Table 3

Results of the PCA with varimax rotation for ATSMI-AV

	Loadings
Factor and scale item	1: Physical threat	2: Wishful thinking	3: Categorical thinking	4: Label avoidance	5: Social construction/concern
Mentally ill people scare me.	0.79
I would cross the street if I saw a mentally ill person coming to avoid passing him/her.	0.78
I think that mentally ill people are strange and weird.	0.73
I can’t see myself hanging out with a mentally ill person.	0.50
Mentally ill people can get well if they are treated with love and kindness.		0.74
There are medications now that can cure mental illness.		0.66
People who are mentally ill could be well if they tried hard enough.		0.75
If a relative of mine became mentally ill, I know that I could convince them to get well.		0.75
Mentally ill people are easy to spot.			0.65
Eating the wrong things or taking drugs can make you mentally ill.			0.64
Mentally ill people tend to be more violent than other people.			0.62
If you become mentally ill your life is pretty much over.			0.58
If I had a mentally ill relative, I wouldn’t want anyone to know.				0.63
Most of my friends would see me as being weak if they thought that I had a mental illness.				0.75
I would be very embarrassed if I were diagnosed as having a mental illness.				0.72
I think that society makes up the diagnosis of mental illness just to control people.					0.76
Schools and parents are mostly responsible for making people mentally ill.					0.64
I think that there really isn’t anything called mental illness; some people are just different.					0.58
I think that you could catch mental illness from another person.					0.41
Eigen values	2.39	2.34	2.0	1.85	1.77
% of variance	11.40	11.15	9.31	8.79	8.42

ATSMI-AV, Attitudes Towards Serious Mental Illness—Adolescent Version; PCA, principal component analysis.