Schizophrenia Bulletin Advance Access originally published online on January 25, 2007
Schizophrenia Bulletin 2007 33(6):1312-1318; doi:10.1093/schbul/sbl076
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Self-Stigma in People With Mental Illness
2 Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1040 W Harrison Street, MC 309 Chicago, IL 60607
3 Joint Research Programs in Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Illinois Institute of Technology
4 University of Chicago
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed; tel: 312-996-0039, fax: 312-996-2770, e-mail: acwatson{at}uic.edu.
Persons with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia may internalize mental illness stigma and experience diminished self-esteem and self-efficacy. In this article, we describe a model of self-stigma and examine a hierarchy of mediational processes within the model. Seventy-one individuals with serious mental illness were recruited from a community support program at an outpatient psychiatry department of a community hospital. All participants completed the Self-Stigma of Mental Illness Scale along with measures of group identification (GI), perceived legitimacy (PL), self-esteem, and self-efficacy. Models examining the steps involved in self-stigma process were tested. Specifically, after conducting preliminary bivariate analyses, we examine stereotype agreement as a mediator of GI and PL on stigma self-concurrence (SSC); SSC as a mediator of GI and PL on self-efficacy; and SSC as a mediator of GI and PL on self-esteem. Findings provide partial support for the proposed mediational processes and point to GI, PL, and stereotype agreement as areas to be considered for intervention.
Keywords: self-stigma / mental illness / group identification / perceived legitimacy