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Investigating stigma as stress in social interactions of parents
Author(s) -
BAXTER C.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of intellectual disability research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1365-2788
pISSN - 0964-2633
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2788.1989.tb01501.x
Subject(s) - psychology , stressor , developmental psychology , stigma (botany) , distressing , clinical psychology , stress (linguistics) , loneliness , staring , exploratory research , social stigma , attribution , social psychology , psychiatry , medicine , linguistics , chemistry , philosophy , communication , family medicine , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , sociology , anthropology
. A new approach to the study of stigma was introduced and applied in an exploratory study designed to investigate the parental experience of stigma within the theoretical framework of the stress process. Interviews were conducted with 131 mothers and fathers of mentally retarded children in three age cohorts. Parentperceived stress attributed to social attitudes was measured on a 5‐point, Liken‐type scale. Three deviating characteristics of the child were identified as ‘stressors’. ‘Noticeability’ of the child's speech and behaviour, and also behaviour management problems were found to be significantly associated with parental stress. No association was found between ‘noticeability’ of the child's appearance and parental stress. Distressing reactions of others, such as staring, displaying discomfort, inappropriately ignoring and drawing attention to the child were also identified as stressors. Multiple regression analysis showed that these two sets of variables accounted for 57% of the variance in explaining parental stress. The concept of stigma as stress was assessed as offering a promising direction for further research.