PSYC 412 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Sexual Minority, Peer Victimization, Psychopathology
14 May 2018
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PSYC 412: Developmental Psychopathology
April 4th 2018
Lecture 22: Stigma and mental health
• What do we mean by stigma?
o Erving Goffma Stigma: Notes of a Spoiled Identity
▪ Attribute to an individual that is deeply discriminating
▪ Any attribute that devalues individual in eyes of another, reduces a
peso to a taited, disouted oe
▪ Stigma is a very negative experience, felt very profoundly and have
significant impacts
o Elements of definitions of stigma
▪ Key elements: 1) individual possesses characterstic that sets them apart
from the norm and 2) belonging to this group is devalued in a particular
social context
o Broad definition
o Link and Phelan (2001) article
▪ Argue that stigma occurs when you see overlapping of 4 components
• 1. People distinguish and label human differences
o You cant experience stigma until children learn to
distinguish between different groups of people
• 2. Dominant cultural beliefs link labeled persons to undesirable
categories
o E.g. stereotypes, negative characteristics to some and not
other people
• 3. Labeled persons placed in distinct categroeis so as to
accomplish some degree separation from us and them
o i goup ad out goup fatos
• 4. Stigmatization is contiengent on access to social, economic,
and political power that allows for identification of differentness,
construction of stereotypes, separation of labeled persons into
distinct categories, full execution of disapproval, rejection,
exclusion and discrimination
• What does stigma look like for adolescents?
o How does concept of stigma manifest in the context of adolescents?
o Discrimination as the enactment of stigmas, stereotypes resulting from stigma
▪ Discrimination is the way someone gets treated as a result of a stigma
▪ Individual discrimination: individual member of one group acts in ways
intended to have differential/harmful effects on members of another
group
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▪ Structural discrimination: accumulated institutional practices that work
to disadvantage of certain groups even in absence of individual prejudice
of discrimination
• Like ais ithout aist paties
• Example of institutional discrimination: rates of punishments
within school systems: sexual minority youth tend to get punished
for things at a higher rate than sexual majority youth, despite
these youths not necessarily displaying more negative behaviors
o One policy brought in to address bullying are zero
tolerance for bullying programs
o These pogas: if oue ullig at all thee is iediate
punishment and it is severe
o If oue a seual ioit ad gettig ullied, oue oe
likely to be involved in physical conflicts
▪ Most studies exploring link between discrimination and mental health
during adolescence focus on individual discrimination and/or
experiences of peer victimization
▪ Why do people tend to focus more on individual and not structural
discrimination in adolescents?
• Adolescents: peer contact super important to their well-being
• Its e diffiult to assess stutual disiiatio
• Many teens have difficult koig he thee epeieig
structural discrimination, but can report on individual
discrimination instances
o What types of stigmas do researchers in adolescents focus on?
▪ Race/ethnic minority-based
▪ Sexual minority-based
▪ Disability-based
▪ Gender-based
▪ Weight-based
▪ Socioeconomic status-based
• Less literature on SES based stigma
o Prevalence?
▪ How common is this phenomenon?
▪ Very slippery question when it comes to experiences of discrimination
▪ Varies widely based on
• Context
o discrimination in one loatio ot look like that i
another (i.e. city vs. country)
• Type of discrimination
• Type of stigmatized identity
▪ In North American/European contexts higher levels of stigma are
generally observed among the following groups:
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• Race/ethnic minority youth
• Sexual minority youth
• Overweight youth
• Youth with disabilities
• Lower SES youth
• Gender minority youth
• Why does stigma matter for mental health?
o For adolescents, interpersonal relationships are very important
o Adolescents live in a more constrained environment than adults: school, home
▪ If they experience discrimination in one of those contexts, their ability to
get out of these contexts is limited
o Pascoe and Smart Richman (2008) found that perceived discrimination increases
▪ Heightened stress response
▪ Diminished engagement in health behaviors
o Meta-aalsis suggests that highe peeies disiiatio assoiated ith…
▪ More mental health symptoms
▪ Greater likelihood of meeting diagnostic criteria for mental health
problems
• Not just that it elevates symptoms, it also makes you more likely
to report clinically significant problems
o The didt geeall fid hoee that these pattes ee odeated
race/ethnicity or gender
▪ Discrimination is bad for everyone, but not everyone finds this
▪ Reporting discrimination based on race/ethnicity, sexual minority status,
gender, associated with higher rates of negative outcomes despite if
oue i a goup thats oe likel to e stigatized
o
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