title: Meta-analysis of stigma and mental health.
abstract: Recent research has emphasized the adverse effects of stigma on minority groups' mental health. Governments and service agencies have put much effort into combating stigma against a variety of conditions. Nevertheless, previous empirical research on the stigma-mental health relationship has yielded inconclusive findings, varying from strong negative to zero correlations. Thus, whether stigma is related significantly to mental health is yet to be confirmed. Using meta-analysis, the associations between stigma and mental health from 49 empirical studies were examined across various stigmatized conditions and mental health indices. Possible moderators were also explored. The mean correlation between stigma and average mental health scores corrected for sampling error, unreliability, and other artifacts was -.28 (N=10,567, k=52). No strong moderators were found, yet meaningful patterns were observed. Implications of the results are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China. wwsmak@psy.cuhk.edu.hk <wwsmak@psy.cuhk.edu.hk>
authors.forename: Winnie W S
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Mak
authors.forename: Cecilia Y M
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Poon
authors.forename: Loraine Y K
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Pun
authors.forename: Shu Fai
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Cheung
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D011287:Prejudice