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- Title
The stigmatization of mental illness in children and parents: developmental issues, family concerns, and research needs.
- Authors
Hinshaw, Stephen P.
- Abstract
This article examines the stigmatization of mental illness in children and parents. Stigmatization of child/adolescent conditions is related to the low status of children throughout history as well as the continuing devaluation of mental disorders. In terms of children as social perceivers of disordered behavior in peers, little is known about developmental factors related to children's knowledge of mental illness, yet from early ages, it is clear that children hold persistently negative attitudes about both the constituent behaviors and labels signifying mental illness. Regarding families, when parents suffer from mental illness, stigma may have great impact on their parenting and, in turn, the development of their children. In addition, parents have typically been blamed for their children's mental disturbances, limiting the pursuit of assessment and treatment. Stigma is a term originating with the ancient Greeks, denoting a visible mark placed or branded on members of tainted groups such as traitors or slaves. All members of society therefore knew instantly of the degraded status of the stigmatized individual. Currently, the term has more of a psychological meaning, signaling an invisible, internal mark of shame related to membership in a deviant or castigated subgroup. At present, stigmatization of mental illness is often quite direct, as there has not been a parallel set of social injunctions against ridicule or castigation in relation to mental disorders. Having a mental illness is one of the most overtly stigmatized attribute an individual can have, rivaled by substance abuse or homelessness.
- Subjects
SOCIAL stigma; REJECTION (Psychology); MENTAL illness; MENTAL health; PARENT-child relationships; CHILD psychiatry; CHILD development
- Publication
Journal of Child Psychology, 2005, Vol 46, Issue 7, p714
- ISSN
0021-9630
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1469-7610.2005.01456.x