title: Examining a progressive model of self-stigma and its impact on people with serious mental illness.
abstract: The self-esteem of some people with serious psychiatric disorders may be hurt by internalizing stereotypes about mental illness. A progressive model of self-stigma yields four stages leading to diminished self-esteem and hope: being aware of associated stereotypes, agreeing with them, applying the stereotypes to one's self, and suffering lower self-esteem. We expect to find associations between proximal stages - awareness and agreement - to be greater than between more distal stages: awareness and harm. The model was tested on 85 people with schizophrenia or other serious mental illnesses who completed measures representing the four stages of self-stigma, another independently-developed instrument representing self-stigma, proxies of harm (lowered self-esteem and hopelessness), and depression. These measures were also repeated at 6-month follow-up. Results were mixed but some evidence supported the progressive nature of self-stigma. Most importantly, separate stages of the progressive model were significantly associated with lowered self-esteem and hope. Implications of the model for stigma change are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Illinois Institute of Technology, United States. corrigan@iit.edu
authors.forename: Patrick W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Corrigan
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rafacz
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rüsch
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006380:Helplessness, Learned; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012649:Self Concept; D057545:Social Stigma; D013240:Stereotyping; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires