Are Negative Community Attitudes Toward Welfare Recipients Associated With Unemployment? Evidence From an Australian Cross-Sectional Sample and Longitudinal Cohort

Abstract

Negative stereotyping and stigmatization of welfare recipients may account for the negative outcomes they experience. Much is known about the impact of stigma on welfare take-up, whereas much is hypothesized about the stigma–unemployment association. In two representative Australian samples, we show that individuals previously exposed to unemployment benefits held negative attitudes to welfare recipients only when these reflected those of their community. Temporal patterns in the data suggest this could reflect an internalization of negative community attitudes. These stigmatizing negative attitudes were not associated with prior unemployment but were linked with current employment, future employment, and a return to employment among the previously unemployed. Community attitudes had no direct effect on employment outcomes. Thus, the effects observed may have an indirect path through the internalization of negative community attitudes. These findings underscore the importance of multilevel analyses of social stigma and highlight that welfare stigma may promote recovery from the underlying characteristic.