Tendency towards stigmatization of families of a person with autistic spectrum disorders

Abstract

Background:

Family members experience stigma via their connection with the affected member. Family stigma contains stereotypes of blame, shame and contamination.

Aim:

To establish the tendency towards stigmatization of family members of a person with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) by a sample of the general public of Belgrade.

Methods:

The sample encompassed 181 participants, of various ages and levels of education, and of different, self-assessed levels of knowledge about autism. The structure of stigmatization of family members of a person with ASD was explored applying the Family Stigma Questionnaire (FSQ) and the Level of Familiarity Questionnaire (LFQ).

Results:

Analysis of the obtained results established that scores indicating the tendency towards stigmatization were most pronounced for variables connected to blame for deterioration of the condition of the person with autism, contamination of the individual family members by the condition, and to feeling pity for family members of a person with ASD. Statistically significant differences were established when the FSQ scores stigmatizing parents and siblings were compared. Significant differences in stigmatizing stereotypes were established according to gender and level of education, and according to the self-assessment of knowledge about autism and the level of previous contact to persons with mental disorders.

Conclusion:

Anti-stigma programmes are important especially bearing in mind that participants who self-evaluated as having the least knowledge about ASD demonstrated the highest tendency towards stigmatizing the parents of a person suffering from ASD, and those of lower education demonstrated the highest tendency towards stigmatizing the family members.

Keywords

Autistic spectrum disorder family stigma attitudes towards persons with disabilities

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alexander

L. A.

Link

B. G.

(2003). The impact on stigmatizing attitudes toward people with mental illness. Journal of Mental Health, 12, 271–89.

Angermeyer

M. C.

Schulze

Dietrich

(2003). Courtesy stigma: A focus group study of relatives of schizophrenia patients. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 38, 593–602.

Birenbaum

(1992). Courtesy stigma revisited. Mental Retardation, 30, 265–268.

Blay

S. L.

Peluso

E. T. P.

(2010). Public stigma: The community’s tolerance of Alzheimer illness. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 18, 163–171.

Cook

T. M.

Wang

J. L.

(2010). Descriptive epidemiology of stigma against depression in a general population sample in Alberta. BMC Psychiatry, 10, 29–36.

Corrigan

P. W.

(1998). The impact of stigma on severe mental illness. Cognitive and Behavior Practice, 5, 201–222.

Corrigan

P. W.

Markowitz

F. E.

Watson

A. C.

Rowan

Kubiak

M. A.

(2003). An attribution model of public discrimination towards persons with mental illness. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 44, 162–179.

Corrigan

P. W.

Miller

F. E.

(2004). Shame, blame and contamination: A review of the impact of mental illness stigma on family members. Journal of Mental Health, 13, 537–548.

Corrigan

P. W.

Penn

D. L.

(1999). Lessons from social psychology on discrediting psychiatric stigma. American Journal of Psychology, 54, 765–776.

10.

Corrigan

P. W.

Watson

A. C.

Miller

F. E.

(2006). Blame, shame and contamination: The impact of mental illness and drug dependence stigma of family members. Journal of Family Psychology, 20, 239–246.

11.

Corrigan

P. W.

Watson

A. C.

Miller

F. E.

(2007). The stigma of psychiatric disorders and the gender, ethnicity, and education of the perceiver. Community Mental Health Journal, 43, 439–458.

12.

Couture

S. M.

Penn

D. L.

(2003). Interpersonal contact and the stigma of mental illness: A review of the literature. Journal of Mental Health, 12, 291–305.

13.

Dragojević

(2007). Vulnerabilnost porodica sa autističnim detetom. Beogradska defektološka škola, 2, 161–72.

14.

Dragojević

Milačić-Vidojević

Hanak

(2010). Attitudes toward people with physical disabilities, their structure and correlating variables. Special Education and Rehabilitation Science and/or Practice, 29–51.

15.

Dragojević

Gligorović

Milačić-Vidojević

(2011). Endorsement of stigma about families with member suffering from schizophrenia. Psychology Matters, 5, 24–33 [in Russian].

16.

Findler

Vilchinsky

Werner

(2007). The multidimensional attitudes scale toward persons with disabilities (MAS): Construction and validation. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 51, 166–176.

17.

George

T. B.

(2002). Care meanings, expressions, and experiences of those with chronic mental illness. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 16, 25–31.

18.

Goffman

(1963). Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

19.

Gray

(2002). Everybody just freezes. Everybody is just embarrassed: Felt and enacted stigma among parents of children with high functioning autism. Sociology of Health and Illness, 24, 734–749.

20.

Greenberg

J. S.

Kim

H. W.

Greenley

J. R.

(1997). Factors associated with subjective burden in siblings of adults with severe mental illness. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 67, 231–241.

21.

Holmes

E. P.

Corrigan

P. W.

Williams

Canar

Kubiak

M. A.

(1999). Changing attitudes about schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 25, 447–456.

22.

Larson

J. E.

Corrigan

P. W.

(2008). The stigma of families with mental illness. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry, 32, 87–91.

23.

Lefley

H. P.

(1992). The stigmatized family. In Fink

P. J.

Tasman

(eds) Stigma and mental illness (pp. 127–138). Washington DC: American Psychiatric Press.

24.

Wang

Jacobyc

de Boerd

Sanderd

J. W.

(2010). Stigma and epilepsy: The Chinese perspective. Epilepsy & Behavior, 17, 242–245.

25.

MacRae

(1999). Managing courtesy stigma: The case of Alzheimer’s desease. Sociology of Health and Illness, 21, 54–70.

26.

Mehta

S. I.

Farina

(1988). Associative stigma: Perceptions of the difficulties of college-aged children of stigmatized fathers. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 7, 192–202.

27.

Milačić-Vidojević

(2007). “Stigma iz učtivosti” u porodicama dece sa ometenošću. Nove tendencije u specijalnoj edukaciji i rehabilitaciji [New Trends in Special Education and Rehabilitation], 243–263.

28.

Milačić-Vidojević

(2008). Autizam – dijagnoza i tretman. Beograd: Fasper.

29.

Norvilitis

J. M.

Scime

Lee

J. S.

(2002). Courtesy stigma in mothers of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A preliminary investigation. Journal of Attention Disorders, 6, 61–68.

30.

Ostman

M. L.

Kjellin

J. S.

(2002). Stigma by association: Psychological factors in relatives of people with mental illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 181, 494–498.

31.

Phelan

J. C.

Link

B. G.

Stueve

Pescosolido

B. A.

(1998). Public conceptions of mental illness in 1950 and 1996: What is mental illness and is it to be feared? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 41, 188–207.

32.

Phillips

M. R.

Pearson

Yang

(2002). Stigma and expressed emotion: A study of people with schizophrenia and their family members in China. British Journal of Psychiatry, 181, 488–493.

33.

Schuster

M. A.

(2008). HIV-related stigma among people with HIV and their families: A qualitative analysis. AIDS and Behavior, 12, 244–254.

34.

Shibre

Negash

Kullgren

Kebede

Alem

Fekadu

Jacobsson

(2001). Perception of stigma among family members of individuals with schizophrenia and major affective disorders in rural Ethiopia. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 36, 299–303.

35.

Struening

E. L.

Perlick

D. A.

Link

B. G.

Hellman

Herman

Sirey

J. A.

(2001). Stigma as a barrier to recovery: The extent to which caregivers believe most people devalue consumers and their families. Psychiatric Services, 52, 1633–1638.

36.

Tsang

H. W.

Tarn

P. K.

Chan

Cheung

W. M.

(2003). Sources of family burden of individuals with mental illness. International Journal of Rehabilitation Research, 26, 123–130.