title: The self-stigma of depression for women.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Self-stigmatizing women who avoid seeking treatment for depression could believe that they have pragmatic personal reasons for their decision. As a preliminary step towards testing this hypothesis, the aim of this study was to assess diverse, low-income working women for shared self-stigmatizing beliefs about depression.
  
  
  METHODS
  Depression and depression self-stigma were assessed in a targeted sample of African American, Caucasian and Latina women who qualify for public health services and have access to health care services.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Depression and self-stigmatizing beliefs about depression were positively correlated (r = .30-.64). Over one third of the women in the study (37.5%) said they would do what they could to keep their depression secret. Over half (55%) indicated that the person they normally would disclose depression to is their best friend. A majority (80%) of the women in the study said they would choose not to disclose personal depression to a health care professional. Pairwise t tests for group differences showed that Caucasian women, women recently seen by a health care professional and women with more years of education had higher self-stigma scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Self-stigmatizing women who feel depressed could knowingly decide to keep their depression secret with the hope of avoiding loss.
authors.affiliation: University of Wisconsin Madison School of Nursing, Clinical Sciences Centre, 53792-2455, USA. ldoakley@wisc.edu
authors.forename: Linda Denise
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Oakley
authors.forename: Jonathan W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kanter
authors.forename: Janette Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Marilyn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Duguid
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013240:Stereotyping; D014922:Wisconsin; D055815:Young Adult