Archives
Components of Perceived Stigma and Perceptions of Well-Being Among University Students With and Without Disability Experience
Sara Green
Abstract
This study examines the impact of self-identified disability experience on specific aspects of perceived stigma and their consequences. University students with disabilities, close family members of individuals with disabilities, those with regular occupational or social contact with individuals with disabilities, and others with no experience with disability, are compared by means of multivariate analyses of survey data.
Results suggest that individuals with disabilities are expected, both by students with and without disability experience, to face social awkwardness and discomfort from others in the community, but are not generally expected to be devalued by others because of their disabilities. Having a disability, however, increases the perception that individuals with disabilities are devalued, and decreases perceived emotional well-being.
Findings support the complexity and multi-dimensionality of the relationship between stigma and the disability experience, and suggest that stigma as a uni-dimensional construct is far too broad.
Keywords
disability, sociology, stigma, well-being, labelling
References
Albrecht G, Seelman K and Bury M (eds) (2001) The Handbook of Disability Studies. Sage: London.
Angermyer M, Schulze B and Dietrich S (2003) Courtesy stigma: A focus group study of relatives of schizophrenia patients. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 38:593-602.
Barnes C (1996) Theories of disability and the origins of the oppression of disabled people in western society. In L Barton (ed) Disability and Society: Emerging Issues and Insights. Longman: New York, pp.19-43.
Barnes C, Mercer G and Shakespeare T (1999) Exploring Disability: A Sociological Introduction Polity: Cambridge.
Birenbaum A (1992) Courtesy stigma revisited. Mental Retardation 30:265-268.
Blum N (1991) The management of stigma by Alzheimer family caregivers. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 20:263-284.
Bury M (1982) Chronic illness as biological disruption. Sociology of Health and Illness 4:167-192.
Cahill S and Eggleston R (1994) Managing emotions in public: The case of wheelchair users. Social Psychology Quarterly 57:300-312.
Charmaz K (1991) Good Days, Bad Days: The Self in Chronic Illness and Time. Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick (NJ).
Crow L (1996) Including all of our lives: Renewing the social model of disability. In J Morris (ed) Encounters with Strangers: Feminism and Disability. Women's Press: London, pp.206-226.
Davis C and Salkin K (2005) Sisters and friends: Dialogue and multivocality in a relational model of sibling disability. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 34:206-234.
Davis L (1997) The Disabilities Studies Reader. New York: Routledge.
Fife B and Wright E (2000) The dimensionality of stigma: A comparison of its impact on the self of persons with HIV/AIDS and cancer. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 41:50-67.
Fine M and Asch S (1988) Disability beyond stigma: Social interaction, discrimination, and activism. Journal of Social Issues 44:3-22.
Fleischer D and Zames F (2001) The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation. Temple University Press: Philadelphia.
Frank A (1995) The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness and Ethics. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
Goffman E (1963) Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs (NJ).
Gove W (1982) The current status of the labelling theory of mental illness. In W Gove (ed) Deviance and Mental Illness. Sage: Beverly Hills, pp.273-300.
Gray D (1993) Perceptions of stigma: The parents of autistic children. Sociology of Health and Illness 15:102-120.
Green S (2001) ‘Oh, those therapists will become your best friends': Maternal satisfaction with clinics providing physical, occupational and speech therapy services to children with disabilities. Sociology of Health and Illness 23:796-829.
Green S (2002) Mothering Amanda: Musings on the experience of raising a child with cerebral palsy. Journal of Loss and Trauma 7:21-34.
Green S (2003) ‘What do you mean ‘what's wrong with her?'': Stigma in the lives of families of children with disabilities. Social Science and Medicine 37:1361-1374.
Green S (2004) The impact of stigma on maternal attitudes toward placement of children with disabilities in residential care facilities: An adaptation of the Andersen and Newman model. Social Science and Medicine 59:799-812.
Green S (2007) ‘We're tired, not sad': Benefits and burdens of mothering a child with a disability. Social Science and Medicine 64:150-163.
Green S, Davis C. Karshmer E, Marsh P and Straight B (2005) Living stigma: The impact of labelling, stereotyping, separation, status loss and discrimination in the lives of individuals with disabilities and their families. Sociological Inquiry 75:197-215.
Hughes B and Patterson K (1997) The social model of disability and the disappearing body: Towards a sociology of impairment. Disability and Society 12:325-340.
Jones E, Farina A, Hastorf A, Markus H, Miller D and Scott R (1984) Social Stigma: The Psychology of Marked Relationships. Freeman: New York.
Kelly S (2005) ‘A different light': Examining impairment through parent narratives of childhood disability. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 34:180-205.
Link B, Cullen F, Struening E, Shrout P and Dohrenwend B (1989) A modified labelling theory approach to mental disorders. American Sociological Review 54:400-423.
Link B and Phelan J (2001) Conceptualizing stigma. Annual Review of Sociology 27:363-385.
Linton S (1998) Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity. New York University Press: New York.
MacRae H (1999) Managing courtesy stigma: The case of Alzheimer's disease. Sociology of Health and Illness 21:54-70.
Marbach J, Lennon M, Link B and Dohrenwend B (1990) Losing face: Sources of stigma as perceived by chronic facial pain patients. Journal of Behavioral Medicine 26:235-242.
Mickelson K (2001) Perceived stigma, social support and depression. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 27:1046-1056.
Murphy R, Scheer J, Murphy Y and Mack R (1988) Physical disability and social liminality: A study of rituals in adversity. Social Science and Medicine 26:235-242.
Oliver M (1992) The Politics of Disablement. Macmillan: Basingstoke (UK).
Oliver M (1996a) Understanding Disability: From Theory to Practice Macmillan: Basingstoke.
Oliver M (1996b) A sociology of disability or a disablist sociology? In L Barton (ed) Disability and Society: Emerging Issues and Insights. Longman: New York, pp.18-24.
Perry J (1996) Writing the self: Exploring the stigma of hearing impairment. Sociological Spectrum 16:239-261.
Priestley M (2003) Disability: A Life Course Approach. Polity: Cambridge (UK).
Radloff L (1977) The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement 1:385-401.
Rowan P, Davidson K, Campbell J, Dobrez D and MacLean D (2001) Depressive symptoms predict medical care utilization in a population-based sample. Psychological Medicine 32:903-908.
Scambler G and Hopkins A (1986) ‘Being epileptic': Coming to terms with stigma. Sociology of Health and Illness 8:26-43.
Scambler G (2004) Re-framing stigma: Felt and enacted stigma and challenges to the sociology of chronic and disabling conditions. Social Theory and Health 2:29-46.
Scheff T (1966) Being Mentally Ill: A Sociological Theory. Aldine: Chicago.
Susman J (1994) Disability, stigma and deviance. Social Science and Medicine 38:15-22.
Turner B (2001) Disability and sociology of the body. In G Albrecht, D Seelman and M Bury (eds) The Handbook of Disability Studies. Sage: Thousand Oaks (CA), pp.252-265.
Weinstein R (1983) Labelling theory and the attitudes of mental patients: A review. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 24:70-84.
Williams G (2001) Theorizing disability. In G Albrecht, D Seelman and M Bury (eds) The Handbook of Disability Studies. Sage: Thousand Oaks (CA), pp.123-144.
Zola I (1977) Healthism and disabling medicalization. In I Illich (ed) Disabling Professions. Marion Boyars: London, pp.41-67.
Zola I (1993) Self, identity and the naming question: Reflections on the language of disability. Social Science and Medicine 36:167-73.
eContent Home