Stigmatization Process Research Articles

Spatial othering in fragmented societies: different others or different housings?

ABSTRACT The sudden emergence of different housing types in a homogenous neighbourhood can cause social distance, negative perceptions, and housing stigmatization. In the Navvab area in Tehran, the social rift and refusal to accept different ones have been represented in the duality of the complex/neighbourhood. Such spatial othering can, in turn, manifest in obvious physical distance, which acts as a certain border area. Through a qualitative case study, based on grounded theory methodology, in the first phase of the Navvab residential complex and its adjacent neighbourhood on the west side of the Navvab highway in Tehran, Iran, this article shows the process of housing stigmatization: how the built environment associates with othering and negative social perceptions; how this othering manifests in urban public spaces; and how people take positions towards the established territorial stigma. Based on the characteristic features and attitudes, individuals were categorized into four categories: dualists, self-righteous, difference deniers, and antipathetics. We finish by suggesting that design and the built environment form can play a mediating role in activating challenging discourses in fragmented societies dealing with stigmatization.

"To me, it was Just a Vice". Stigma and Other Barriers to Gambling Treatment in Piedmont, Italy.

In Piedmont (northwestern Italy), as in the rest of the Western world, only a small percentage of the estimated problem gamblers (10-20%) turn to a treatment service to overcome their addiction issues. The study sought to gain a better understanding of the cultural factors that stand in the way of seeking help, thorough qualitative in-depth individual interviews with gamblers both in and out of treatment. A total of 30 interviews were conducted in three different health districts, most via video-call. Data were then analyzed using an abductive approach. The findings appear to indicate that the processes of stigma affecting problem gamblers and public gambling treatment services are the main barriers to seeking help. According to the interviewees, awareness of the problem is a necessary but not sufficient motivator for embarking on treatment, since social stigmatization leads them to hide the problem. Moreover, self-stigmatization processes seem to undermine the sense of self-efficacy that plays a key role in recovery. To encourage help-seeking, the study thus suggests that priority should be given to efforts to reduce stigma, i.e., through informational and educational measures together with advocacy interventions, which aim primarily to reframe the gambling problem, shifting responsibility from the individual to the collective level.

The Stigmatization of The Divorced Individuals

When the studies on divorce are examined, it is understood that the act of divorce causes stigmatization of individuals. Studies show that divorced individuals are stigmatized with different stigmatizing concepts in different cultures. What makes this study different from other studies is that it reveals which concepts and how divorced individuals in Turkey are stigmatized. The research problem is about the lived experiences of individuals and requires in-depth knowledge about these lived experiences. For this reason, the qualitative research method was preferred as the research method. Phenomenology was used as the research design in this study carried out with the qualitative research method. Phenomenology focuses on the experiences which are the related phenomenon of individuals who have experienced phenomena that we have noticed but do not have a deep understanding of, and provides gaining in-depth knowledge of the phenomenon under research. Thematic qualitative data analysis was applied to the data collected in a city located in the northwest of Turkey, and stigmatizing concepts were revealed by reaching the themes from the codes. In this study, it was concluded that divorced men are stigmatized with 3 concepts and divorced women are stigmatized with 3 concepts that are different from the concepts that stigmatize men. It has been seen that these stigmatizing concepts are semantically opposite to the concepts that constitute male and female identities. In addition, it was concluded that this stigmatization process occurs with the thought that women and men fail to fulfill their gender roles.

“Не такі, як всі”? Відносини транснаціональних сімей з рідним суспільством – між стигмою та діалогом

The study discusses whether and how Ukrainian and Moldovan migrant parents, some of whom had to leave their children behind in the care of other adults, are faced with a disapproving public discourse while also facing strong pressure both in their relationship with the public authorities and at the level of society, community, and family. Through this approach, we aim to answer the following question: Are Ukrainian and Moldavian transnational family members subjected to a process of stigmatization at the level of society and their immediate social environment? In this view, we develop a qualitative inquiry based on in-depth interviews with respondents from Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. Our main research objective is to examine the attitudes encountered by members of transnational families in society, their relations with the representatives of the authorities, as well as in their close social environment, community, and family. Specific research topics are explored, such as reasons for migration, trust in public authorities, local community, migrants’ community, trust in the host country’s state and society, the attitudes towards the most important key stakeholders involved in the migration process, as well as the support measures proposed by migrants and their families. The findings concerning the attitudes, level of trust, and proposals suggest the presence of a certain degree of stigmatization of parents from transnational families. Our study underlines the need for transnational transfer of good practices and real-life experiences, such as those of migrants, to not remain an empty imitation. This experience can only be transferred through dialogue, trust, and acceptance – which is not the case at the time of our research. Therefore, it is imperative to continue dialogue-based fieldwork with primary stakeholders, the families themselves, to deconstruct and prospectively avoid the structural construction of stigma.

Amplifying Stigmatization: Owlcatraz and the naming of a football stadium

While organizational stigma has emerged as an important and vibrant area of study, yet the processes of stigmatization have not been as thoroughly examined. Specifically, this study explores the subsequent, ongoing stigmatization processes beyond stigma emergence that are triggered by stigma transfer. To do so, we draw on a qualitative case study of an American university selling the naming rights of its newly built football stadium to a company that runs for-profit prisons with a history of human rights violations. We find that the stigma transfer through an exposed association can lead to amplifying stigmatization of both the source and target organizations, featuring a reverberation process fueled by both rhetorical and material stigmatizing practices. Even after the stigmatizing association ceased, stigmatization of the target organization, though muffled, lingered and required further management. Through developing a model of amplifying and muffling stigmatization after stigma transfer, we offer contributions to scholarship on ongoing stigmatization and stigma transfer. We also open the opportunity to understand the temporal dimensions of stigmatization.

Development and preliminary psychometric evaluation of the COPD-related Stigma Scale

BackgroundStigma experiences contribute to psychological distress and negatively affect healthcare-seeking behavior in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Most evidence comes from qualitative research, and no well-established measure of COPD-related stigma exists. Prior research yielded a preliminary measure of COPD-related stigma, but it required item reduction and validation. ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to revise the preliminary measure, reduce the number of items, identify underlying constructs, and evaluate the reliability and validity of the shortened version. MethodsA descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted. Participants (N = 148; mean = 64 ± 7.27 years) completed the 51-item preliminary COPD-related Stigma Scale (COPDSS). Item-level analysis was conducted before running exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Convergent validity and known-groups validity were evaluated. ResultsIn the item-level analysis, eight items were deleted, leaving 43 items for factor analysis. A four-factor model with 24 items (α = 0.93) was derived from EFA: social stigma (α = 0.95), felt stigma (α = 0.95), anticipated stigma-oxygen (α = 0.80), and smoking-related stigma (α = 0.81). The 24-item COPDSS was significantly correlated with the 8-item Stigma Scale for Chronic Illness (r = 0.83), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (r = 0.57), and the PROMIS Physical Function (r = –0.48). The 24-item COPDSS discriminated between known groups based on age (p = .03), use of inhalers (p = .002) and use of supplemental oxygen (p < .001), and psychological distress levels (ps < .001). ConclusionFindings support the reliability and validity of the 24-item COPDSS. This instrument can be used to understand underlying stigma processes in people with COPD.

Civilizationism and the Ideological Contestation of the Liberal International Order

Abstract Discourses and practices reproducing a world where a plurality of distinct civilizations clash or dialogue, rise or fall, color multiple facets of global politics today. How should we interpret this unexpected surge in civilizational politics, especially notable in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, China, and Russia? This paper argues that the growing turn to civilizations or, better, civilizationism should be understood as a counter-hegemonic ideological reaction to the globalization of the liberal international order. It theorizes the deepening and widening of the liberal international order in the aftermath of the Cold War as enabled by powerful constitutive ideological forces, which congeal into a distinctively modern, informal, universal standard of civilization. This liberal civilizational standard can be experienced by a particular category of non (fully) liberal actors within and beyond the West as ideologically entrapping them—through processes of socialization or stigmatization—in a state of symbolic disempowerment. The paper shows how civilizationism provides an ideological path for resisting and contesting the liberal standard of civilization by articulating a distinct and valued (essentialized) sense of collective belonging, and an alternative (generally illiberal) normative system and (broadly multipolar) vision of international order. Along with theorizing and exploring in original ways the drivers of civilizational politics in the current historical juncture, the paper makes two further contributions. It highlights and unpacks the key role of ideological dynamics in the making and contestation of international orders in general and the liberal one in particular. It suggests and shows why civilizations are best approached as ideological constructs rather than cultures, identities, or discourses.

Ruhsal Hastalıklara Yönelik Damgalamanın Değerlendirilmesi: Gözden Geçirme

Stigma is the society's development of prejudiced attitudes and behaviors against the individual due to the diagnosis and treatment associated with mental illnesses, and the individual's exposure to discrimination within the social group. Stigma can be observed as social and internalized. Social stigma can limit people's opportunities, options and competitive conditions. Internalized stigma is the internalization of beliefs related to the prejudiced and discriminatory approach of the environment by the individual. Social and internalized stigmatization processes are related to self-esteem. It has been stated that patient relatives are also exposed to stigmatization along with individuals who have mental illness, and stigmatization reduces the possibility of recovery in mental illnesses. Considering the relevant research findings, it is understood that there is a need to struggle individually and socially against stigma in order to prevent the increase in the negative consequences of mental illness and the development of comorbidities, to strengthen functional behaviors during the treatment process and to increase social support. Informing patients, patient's family, mental health workers and the society, encouraging social change and new research on the subject can be considered as methods of struggle with stigma. In this review, the stigmatization process, social and internalized stigma, the relationship between psychopathology and self-esteem with internalized stigma, stigma and the patient's family, status of stigma over time, status of stigma according to societies, and the relationship of stigma with mental health services were evaluated. In this review, the stigmatization process, social and internalized stigma, the relationship between psychopathology and self-esteem with internalized stigma, stigma and the patient's family, status of stigma over time, status of stigma according to societies, and the relationship of stigma with mental health services were evaluated.

Elite athletes seeking psychiatric treatment: Stigma, impression management strategies, and the dangers of the performance narrative

This study explores the reasons given by five elite athletes for choosing to seek psychiatric support and treatment outside, rather than inside, their own sport environments. Life story interviews were conducted with these athletes, who were recruited from an open psychiatric clinic in Stockholm, Sweden. The interviews were then subjected to a structural and a thematic narrative analysis. The former revealed the power of the performance narrative to frame the lives of the athletes by producing a single-minded focus on performance outcomes that justifies, and even demands, the exclusion of any form of psychological weakness or vulnerability. The latter revealed the relationship between the performance narrative and the process of stigmatization associated with psychiatric disorders in elite sport and how this pressures athletes to adopt specific Goffmanesque impression management strategies to protect themselves within their own sport environments. These strategies were as follows: wearing a mask (to hide their psychological suffering), adhering to a vow of silence (making stories of psychological suffering untellable in elite sport), and finding an alibi (a way of portraying suffering in an “acceptable” form). Finally, we reflect on implications for practice, including the potential of narrative care, to help elite athletes explore alternative narratives that might be supportive rather than dangerous companions when suffering from psychiatric disorders. Lay summary: Five elite athletes were interviewed about their experiences of living with psychiatric disorders, focusing on their choice to seek psychiatric treatment outside, rather than inside, their own sport environments. Stigma and adhering to a single-minded focus on performance forced the athletes to adopt different strategies to hide their psychological suffering. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE The performance narrative, characterized by a single-minded focus on performance that demands the exclusion of any form of psychological weakness, stigmatizes elite athletes with psychiatric disorders, making their stories untellable within elite sport. To protect themselves from stigma, these athletes developed impression management strategies to hide their psychological suffering within elite sport. Knowledge of these impression management strategies among different mental health providers working to support athletes, and the use of narrative care to explore alternative narratives, may facilitate elite athletes in seeking support, help, and understanding for their psychiatric disorders.

Study of Stigmatization of People with Mental Illnesses among Young People

The subject of the study is the problem of stigmatization of people with mental illnesses. Currently, the problem of stigmatization of people with mental illnesses reaches a fairly high level. First of all, this tendency is expressed in a dismissive, and sometimes even contemptuous attitude towards neurodifferent individuals associated with fears, fears and prejudices regarding the behavior of persons with an established mental diagnosis. We are talking about attributing to mentally ill people the ability and willingness to commit various crimes, including serious ones, and vice versa, society often assigns to mentally healthy criminals the presence of a mental disorder that they did not have. The novelty of the study lies in a two-way process that aggravates the process of stigmatization: on the one hand, modern medicine allows more accurately diagnosing various mental disorders and selecting adequate treatment so that the life of an individual does not differ or almost does not differ from a person who does not suffer from similar disorders. On the other hand, the same modern world, the pace of life and the level of stress provokes the appearance and development of mental disorders, as evidenced by both twenty-year-old and modern studies. The main conclusions based on the results of the study in this paper: there is a fairly high level of interest in the student society to the topic of mental health in general, a relatively loyal attitude towards neurodifferent individuals. For people who treat mentally ill people less loyally, the main motive for stigmatization is fear, fear due to the "unpredictability" of the behavior of people with severe mental disorders. It is also important to note that a significant part of the respondents claim that in Russia the level of mental education, the quality of medical care and the level of support for people with mental illnesses, measures aimed at integrating such people into society are not of sufficient quality.

Analysis of Diversion Arrangements in the Beijing Rules and the Juvenile Criminal Justice System in Indonesia

Diversion is very important to pay attention to in handling children of delinquent perpetrators, because it can prevent children from the stigmatization process that usually occurs in the process of criminalizing children through the juvenile justice system. In terms of protecting the best interests of children, diversion arrangements can be found in several international legal instruments such as The Beijing Rules, and in national legal instruments such as the Juvenile Criminal Justice System Act. The purpose of this study is to examine the diversion arrangements in The Beijing Rules and their arrangements in the Law on the Juvenile Criminal Justice System in Indonesia, then to examine these two arrangements. The research method used is normative legal research using statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches. The results of the study show that the purpose of diversion in The Beijing Rules is not fully seen in the Law on the Juvenile Criminal Justice System. Because even though the provisions for diversion have been regulated, the existence of space that diversion can be pursued at the stages of investigation, prosecution and examination at trial has resulted in cases still being included in the juvenile justice system by giving a stronger stigma to children who are in conflict with the law.

Superficial Allies: The Role of Legal Inclusion and Social Obedience in Stigma Processes

While the power of legal exclusion in stigmatisation is undeniable, its impact on ally behaviour has never been explored. This gap in stigma, law, and allyship is the focus of the present study. More specifically, this study shows how exclusion of the stigmatised from a legal system increases prejudicial attitudes expressed by allies. Using sexual prejudice, negative attitudes towards sexual minorities, as a proxy for stigma, this study explores ‘Superficial Allies’ or those who express full support for sexual minorities while refusing neighbouring proximity to them. Using attitudinal data from the Integrated Values Surveys (1981–2016), a large international (113 countries/regions) cross-sectional time-series survey, this study investigates the role of legal inclusion and social obedience in sexual prejudice expressed by those who fully support sexual minorities and those who fully reject them. The results of logistic regression models suggest that the absence of legal recognition and protection for sexual minorities at the national level increases expression of sexual prejudice among both allies and the stigmatisers. While social obedience plays a significant role in stigmatisers’ expression of sexual prejudice, it shows no significance for the ally population. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Do these jeans make me feel fat? Exploring subjective fatness, its workplace outcomes, and rethinking the role of subjectivity in the stigmatization process

AbstractPersonal, work, and societal concerns about obesity and body fatness have triggered research on it across multiple domains. However, the organizational literature has been hampered by a significant shortcoming in considering it solely as an objective construct, despite research in other disciplines demonstrating a critical subjective component to how body fatness is experienced. To address this conceptual and theoretical challenge, we draw on stigma theory to explore the workplace implications of subjective fatness, or how big one feels in their own mind. We utilize and extend stigma theory by integrating it with medical research. In doing so, we shed new light on the subjective nature of the self‐devaluation process that occurs in stigmatized individuals. We argue that this self‐devaluation process is the mechanism by which subjective body fatness influences work performance. We test these hypotheses across three studies that constructively replicate results across multiple design types (multi‐rater, time‐lagged, &amp; bivariate latent‐change model) and diverse geographic samples. Results consistently show that subjective fatness exerts a stronger impact on performance than objective fatness, and this influence is mediated by self‐devaluation. In all, our work indicates it is not how big one is but how big one feels that most affects work performance.

Identities in transition: Audit recruits and the German reunification

This paper studies the identity transitions of East German audit recruits during the fundamental ideological, economic, and societal change brought about by the reunification of Germany in 1990. Integrating the identity work literature with key concepts from Pierre Bourdieu and Erving Goffman, we build on semi-structured interviews with two groups of recruits—university graduates and former state auditors—to explore and theorize the marked differences observed in these recruits' transition processes. In line with wider processes of territorial stigmatization, we argue that the West German audit firms pragmatically instrumentalized their local personnel, seeking to deploy them without intending to integrate them into the profession. In turn, the audit recruits met with this exertion of symbolic violence by managing a ‘spoiled identity’. The university graduates found it easier to recognize and accumulate legitimate forms of capital, thereby submitting themselves to the inculcation of the profession's socialization process, which ultimately yielded their institution into the profession. In contrast, the former state auditors' local knowledge and access to client networks provided immediately useful capital to the West German firms, which, however, sought to retain a status differential vis-à-vis these recruits. As a result of such strategies of condescension, the former state auditors maintained key aspects of their identity as a salient part of their self-conception. We further highlight the role of the local audit offices in the recruits' transition processes, as they evolved from flexible spaces, which allowed for experimentation and improvisation, into more structured units. This process embedded professional values and practices, thereby creating localized office identities.

Standing on the Shoulders of Goffman: Advancing a Relational Research Agenda on Stigma

Drawing from Goffman’s original observations on stigma and the consequences of interactions between the stigmatized and supportive or stigmatizing audiences, we conduct a 20-year review of the diverse literature on stigma to revisit the collective nature of stigmatization processes. We find that studies on stigma’s origins, responses, processes, and outcomes have diverged from Goffman’s relational view of stigma as they have overlooked important relational mechanisms explaining the processes of (de)stigmatization. We draw from those conclusions to justify the need to study stigma as a collective phenomenon. We develop a relational perspective on stigma based on understanding how attributes are stigmatized (or not) by audiences in their interactions. We argue that to advance stigma research, it is necessary to build on Goffman’s theory to include the stigmatizers (i.e., the normal) and supporters (i.e., the wise); how they create, sustain, or remove stigma; and how they relate to the stigmatized (i.e., the targets). Accordingly, we provide a research agenda on stigma as a collective phenomenon that theorizes a relational perspective, proposes a typology of how audiences relate to stigmatization, and identifies patterns of relations between audiences. We thus offer a missing piece to existing accounts of stigma by focusing on the key role of audiences (i.e., stigmatizers or supporters of the stigmatized) rather than on the targets of stigma (i.e., the own).

"As if we are branded with the mark of Cain": stigma, guilt, and shame experienced by COVID-19 survivors in Israel - a qualitative study.

Stigma is associated with harmful health outcomes, and it fuels social and health inequalities. It can undermine social cohesion and encourage social exclusion of groups, which may contribute to secrecy about disease symptoms, avoidance of disease testing and vaccination, and further spread of a contagious illness. Stigmatization is a social process set to exclude those who are perceived to be a potential source of disease and may pose a threat to effective interpersonal and social relationships. In this qualitative study, we delved into the stigmatization experiences of twenty COVID-19 recovered patients during the COVID-19 first wave, using in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted during November 2020. Using thematic analysis, we found that the process of stigmatization was all-encompassing, from the stage of diagnosis throughout the duration of the disease and the recovery phases. On the basis of the data, we hypothesized that stigma is a significant public health concern, and effective and comprehensive interventions are needed to counteract the damaging and insidious effects during infectious disease pandemics such as COVID-19, and reduce infectious disease-related stigma. Interventions should address provision of emotional support frameworks for the victims of stigmatization and discrimination that accompany the COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics. This study was conducted in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when uncertainty about the disease was high and fear of contamination fueled high levels of stigmatization against those who became ill with Covid-19.

Unspoiling Identity: An Intersectional Expansion of Stigma Response Strategies

Sociological research has documented the various strategies employed by members of stigmatized populations to mitigate the negative social effects of these identities in everyday life. Furthermore, social and political campaigns have called for efforts toward destigmatizing identities. However, we know much less about how these groups come to aim for destigmatization and how individuals navigate multiple stigmas simultaneously or intersectional stigmas. Drawing on four years of ethnographic data, I use the case of Black gay men to articulate a form of stigma response that prioritizes the “stigmatized” rather than attending to the smoothness of interactions with a potential stigmatizer. I illustrate how the confines of multiple forms of stigma can make existing stigma response techniques, like passing and covering, untenable. I offer the term, “unspoiling” to account for the ways that some members of stigmatized populations reject the Goffmanian notion that these identities would be perpetual marks of inferiority. In so doing, I articulate an intersectional understanding of (de)stigmatization processes by attending to groups that are overlooked in mainstream efforts to focus solely on either race or sexuality. These findings add to the growing literature of stigma management response techniques and challenge the conversation of larger group destigmatization processes. This work reveals the contested process of stigma negotiation as young Black gay men debate the appropriate strategies to combat stigma in their local communities. Ultimately, unspoiling is a strategy borne out of tense discussions about the (un)acceptability of passing or covering one’s sexual identity.

Measuring health-related stigma: Exploring challenges and research priorities to improve assessment

ABSTRACT Despite the advances in stigma research, measuring health-related stigma continues to be challenging and knowledge gaps remain. This study gained insight into challenges and research priorities related to the assessment of health-related stigma. Interviews were conducted with 14 stigma researchers, followed by a survey that was completed by 36 respondents. The findings showed a diverse range of research priorities. Among the top ranked priorities were the need for robust measurement properties of existing scales (content validity, responsiveness, validation across settings), exploration and assessment of subtle changes in stigma, and investigation on ways to assess actual behaviour and discrimination. Various challenges with the cross-cultural use of measures were identified, along with a research opportunity to shorten the cross-cultural validation process. Other identified research priorities related to: studying multi-level intersectional stigma; focusing on positive features that counter stigma; rephrasing negative and offending scale items; developing generic measures; and, the further development of practical tools to support researchers with scale implementation. The defined research priorities can guide future studies to advance stigma measurements and, as our ability to measure is critical for our understanding, enhance our knowledge about the complex stigma processes.

Supplemental Material for Incorporating Macro-Social Contexts into Emotion Research: Longitudinal Associations Between Structural Stigma and Emotion Processes Among Gay and Bisexual Men

Supplemental Material for Incorporating Macro-Social Contexts into Emotion Research: Longitudinal Associations Between Structural Stigma and Emotion Processes Among Gay and Bisexual Men

Modelling attitude towards HIV / AIDS in literature from 2019 to 2021

In the framework of health policies, the psychological processes of dentistry and stigma are a binomial that tries to explain lifestyle assessment processes related to vulnerable groups. Precisely, the objective of the present work is to establish the validity and reliability of an instrument that measured both dimensions on an attitude scale. A cross-sectional and correlational study was carried out in order to establish the psychometric properties of the instrument with a non-probabilistic and intentional sample of 100 students from a public university. Results showed that both dimensions as preponderant factors attitude, but its inclusion in the construct was assumed as part of a spontaneous activation process; actions and risks that only a group or close to carriers of HIV / AIDS can take.