Living with a concealable stigmatized identity: The impact of anticipated stigma, centrality, salience, and cultural stigma on psychological distress and health.

Abstract

The current research provides a framework for understanding how concealable stigmatized identities impact people's psychological well-being and health. The authors hypothesize that increased anticipated stigma, greater centrality of the stigmatized identity to the self, increased salience of the identity, and possession of a stigma that is more strongly culturally devalued all predict heightened psychological distress. In Study 1, the hypotheses were supported with a sample of 300 participants who possessed 13 different concealable stigmatized identities. Analyses comparing people with an associative stigma to those with a personal stigma showed that people with an associative stigma report less distress and that this difference is fully mediated by decreased anticipated stigma, centrality, and salience. Study 2 sought to replicate the findings of Study 1 with a sample of 235 participants possessing concealable stigmatized identities and to extend the model to predicting health outcomes. Structural equation modeling showed that anticipated stigma and cultural stigma were directly related to self-reported health outcomes. Discussion centers on understanding the implications of intraindividual processes (anticipated stigma, identity centrality, and identity salience) and an external process (cultural devaluation of stigmatized identities) for mental and physical health among people living with a concealable stigmatized identity.

Kill or cure? Different types of social class identification amplify and buffer the relation between social class and mental health

“…This is because people who identify strongly with their social class group are more likely to be affected by its (positive or negative) social status (for conceptually similar predictions, see Elliott & Doane, 2015;McCoy & Major, 2003, p. 1007Quinn & Chaudoir, 2009). This amplification hypothesis can be contrasted with an alternative buffering hypothesis.…”

Kill or Cure? Different Types of Social Class Identification Amplify and Buffer the Relation between Social Class and Mental Health

“…Importance and salience can be conceived as part of the broader construct of centrality (Cameron, 2004;Milanov et al, 2014). However, they refer to separate constructs (e.g., Quinn & Chaudoir, 2009), and in the present study an exploratory factor analysis showed that they loaded on distinct factors. There are also theoretical reasons for treating these constructs separately.…”

“…Specifically, we examined the potential moderating effects of three types of identification: the importance and salience of social class identity and the perceived similarity that people feel with other members of their social class group (e.g., Milanov et al, 2014;Quinn & Chaudoir, 2009). Importance represents the psychological centrality of a social identity in a person's selfconcept (e.g., "the group I belong to is an important reflection of who I am").…”

Chinese Culture and Its Potential Influence on Entrepreneurship

“…Conversely, disclosing stigmatized identities has several positive consequences, including greater cognitive resolution, increased relationship closeness, and decreased feelings of isolation (Quinn & Chaudoir, 2009). Further, if failure is not a stigma, the issue of revealing or concealing it will not exist.…”