Attitudes Toward Adolescents on Adult Wards of a Mental Hospital

Mixing adult and adolescent patients is the trend on the ward level in psychiatric hospital treatment of adolescents. The authors examine the attitudes of the three groups closest to 55 hospitalized adolescents—the hospital staff, the adult patients, and the parents of the adolescent patients. The results of this study indicate considerable underlying hostility on the part of each group toward the mixing of adolescents and adults in wards. The authors suggest the importance of bringing such attitudes to light.