Attitudes toward mental illness were measured by the OMI questionnaire, opinion about mentall illness scale, for 90 ale graduate college students from Iranian. American, and Chinese cultural backgrounds. The questionnaire consisted of five different factors: A-Authoritarianism, B-Benevolence, C-Mental Hygiene ideology, D-Social restrictiveness, E-Interpersonal etiology. To assure sufficient comprehension of the questionnaire in its original language by all of the participants, a few proficiency language criteria had to be met. 42 (our of a total of 132) questionnaires were excluded from the study because of failure to meet certain criteria.

Questionnaires were scored indivdually by using the scoring system of the OMI. Significant differences were found among the three groups of participants on the factors A, B, C, and E of the OMI. Comparing the means of subscale scores, both Iranian and Chinese subjects performed higher on "Authoritarianism" (Factor A) on social restrictiveness (Factor D), and on interpersonal etiology (Factor E), and lower on benevolence (Factor B) than american subjects. No significant differences were found between the iranian and chinese subjects on any of the OMI subscales.