Adolescent mental health consumers' self‐stigma: associations with parents' and adolescents' illness perceptions and parental stigma

Abstract

Currently, little is known about adolescents' self-stigma experiences as mental health (MH) treatment recipients. Hence, this study addresses the following two questions: (a) what are adolescents' and parents' perceptions of stigma and perceptions of the cause, controllability, and anticipated outcome (illness perceptions) of adolescents ' MH problems? (b) to what extent do illness perceptions (adolescents and parents) and parents' own stigma experiences relate to adolescents' self-stigmatization? The results, based on data from separate interviews with a voluntary sample of 60 adolescent-parent dyads, clients of MH wraparound services, suggest that approximately 20% of adolescents and parents reported significant concerns related to self-stigmatization. Using multivariate analyses, we found that the three most prominent factors associated with adolescents' self-stigma ratings included adolescents' perceptions of social skill deficits and trauma as causal factors pertaining to their mental health challenges, as well as parents' inclination to conceal their child's MH problems from others. C

Perceptions of Personal Well-Being Among Youth Accessing Residential or Intensive Home-Based Treatment

“…Similarly, 30% of parents reported feeling ashamed of their child's disorder and thus felt the need to conceal it from others. Adolescents scored higher on ratings of self-stigma when their parents attempted to conceal their disorder and when they felt they had less control over their disorder and recovery (Moses, 2010a). These results point to important correlates of self-stigma for youth with mental health disorders.…”

“…Overall, these youth reported significant peer stigmatization, with over 60% of participants reporting "some" or "substantial" amounts, which was higher than that for both the family and school categories. Alienation, exclusion, discrimination, and being insulted, taunted, and harassed by both peers and family members were reported in several studies (Kendall, Hatton, Beckett, & Leo, 2003;Moses, 2009Moses, , 2010aMoses, , 2010bPolvere, 2011). Both at school and at home, reports of being unfairly blamed for events were common, where adults and teachers were quick to misinterpret behaviors and symptoms in a negative light .…”

Advocacy for youth mental health in Europe: a policy analysis

“…Corrigan et al [23] note that this sense of dangerousness directs one to fear, and consequently that someone will probably avoid and/or promote avoidance of the source of dangerousness (the one with a mental health serious problem). In a study eliciting perceived stigma among adolescents and parents, higher self-stigma was found in adolescents perceiving their mental health problems to be life-long, and parent's attitudes were found to significantly influence the adolescents' self-stigma [24].…”

Conceptualizing Culturally Infused Engagement and Its Measurement for Ethnic Minority and Immigrant Children and Families

“…Particularly in the case of child mental health, evidence indicates that across ethnic groups perceptions of parental responsibility are frequent (Malacrida 2001;Singh 2004), both among parents themselves and also by others. Studies suggest that parents often blame themselves and attribute the causes of their child's mental health problems to themselves, despite acknowledging other causes such as biological, genetic, or environmental causes (Moses 2010). The attribution of parental responsibility for child mental health problems appears to be shared widely-not only by the general public (Corrigan and Miller 2004;Struening et al 2001;Weiner et al 1988) but by teachers (Edwardraj et al 2010) and mental health professionals (Johnson et al 2000(Johnson et al , 2003.…”

“…For example, beliefs associated with the fear of avoidance by others, social rejection, and discrimination are reported among parents of children with mental health diagnoses (Corrigan and Miller 2004;Dempster et al 2015;Shibre et al 2001). Moreover, evidence suggests that family members engage in behavioral responses to the stigma by concealing the family members' mental illness from others (Stengler-Wenzke et al 2004), avoiding seeking treatment (Moses 2010), staying silent about their child (KoroLjungberg and Bussing 2009), and hiding or limiting the social contact of the family member with the illness (Lin et al 1981).…”