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RESEARCH METHODOLOGYThe study adopted the descriptive survey method. The simple rationale informing the use of the descriptive research designwas the investigation on the kind of stigma that is attached to the mentally- ill and mental illness in general in Ha-Leqele,Maseru, Lesotho.The study Participants and sampling TechniqueThe participants are made up of 137 respondents including 56 (40.9%) males and 81(59.1%) females using the household asa yardstick for sample cluster while the simple random technique was the selection format adopted. Out of the total sample,87 (63.5%) were literate men and women (i.e could read without assistance) while 50(36.5%) are not literate. For theparticipants’ religious affiliation, 9 (6.6%) are from the traditional setting, while 47 (34.3%) are born again (i.e. individualswith esoteric prayer lives and are either Pentecostal and, or evangelical in belief) as another 7 (5.1%) also came from theorthodox churches (i.e. Catholic and Anglican background) just as 74 (54.0%) of the respondents did not indicate theirreligious affiliation. The participants’ age range was between 18 and 64 years and had a Mean age of 36.7(SD=14.8)respectively.Research InstrumentThe Stigma to Mentally-ill Opinionate Scale (SMOS) was developed, validated and utilized as the research instrument forcollect data in the study. The SMOS has four sub-categories (I, II, III, and IV), namely, knowledge (sub-category I),identification (sub-category II), treatment (sub-category III) and that of support (sub-category IV). Under knowledge thereare eleven (11) items, identification eleven (11) items, treatment thirteen (13) items and support had ten (10) items. The itemswere responded to by the respondents using a tick of any kind under the columns on agree, disagree and neutral. The scalewas so designed in this way because the background of the study and the literature reviewed revealed that the stigma attachedto the mentally-ill arose from the individuals’ misperception within the community. Some of the items in the questionnairewere picked from the literature of the study while others were the outcome of scrutinised and reprocessed information fromFocused Group Discussion (FGD) that elicited their perception of the mentally-ill people and the illness.Each of the sub-categories was submitted for expert screening with actual item-composition pruned to reflect the suggestedcorrections. The sub-categories in the SMOS were observed for content validity having both the face and logical (i.e. subsectioncomposition) dimensions. Using the Cronbach alpha its reliability measures for the respective sub-categories are(r=0.72) for sub-category I, (r=0.79) for II, (r=0.80) for III and (r=0.75) for IV respectively. The validation followed a twoweekadministration of the SMOS.Data AnalysisThe data analysis adopted was the One-Way Analysis of Variance (One Way ANOVA) as provided in the Statistical Packagefor Social Scientists (SPSS). The One-Way ANOVA procedure produces a one-way analysis of variance for a quantitativedependent variable by a single factor (independent) variable. Analysis of variance is used to test the hypothesis that severalmeans are equal.Results and Findings/DiscussionThe results of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) were summarized on the basis of the hypotheses advanced in the study. Thehypotheses were tested one by one.Hypothesis OneThe first hypothesis stated that the gender of respondents will not significantly affect the perception of the stigma attached tomentally-ill people. In testing this hypothesis the data was analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) while statisticalinferences were made at the alpha level of 0.05. The results are displayed on table 1 below. From the table, results whichshowed that there was significant statistical difference [F(5,131)=0.508;P