Abstract

This project will involve a collaborative endeavor between scholars from the United States and the People's Republic of China to study the effects of stigma associated with behaviorally driven health disorders on employment-related discrimination. People with three such disorders will be the focus of this study: psychotic disorders, alcohol abuse disorders, and HIV/AIDS. The study will examine the attitudes and behaviors of employers (compared to the general public) using probability samples at three urban sites: Chicago, Beijing, and Hong Kong. Central research questions include why employers endorse stigmatizing beliefs about these disorders, how these attitudes result in withholding work opportunities, and how social and political variables mitigate employer attitudes and actions. First, intensive qualitative interviews will be conducted with a diverse sample of employers at the three sites (N =360, 120/city) to explore the relevant attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors related to hiring people with behavioral health conditions. Results from this study will help inform a survey-based quantitative study, which will test social cognitive models of employer perceptions of people with behaviorally driven health conditions using a vignette assessment strategy and factorial survey design (N = 900, 300/city). This will include examination of employer attributions of causal responsibility for the disorder; attributions about the stability and recoverability of the disorder; concerns about dangerousness; concerns about incompetence; and concerns about contagion. A third study will replicate the quantitative survey on samples representing the general public in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Chicago (N=3,000, 1,000/city). Finally, the effects of socio-cultural factors (e.g., individualist vs. collectivist cultural orientation) on employer attitudes and behavior vis-a-vis people with health-related conditions will be examined. Data from this study will be especially important for the development of future stigma-change programs.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AA014842-07
Application #
7280420
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-SSS-N (50))
Program Officer
Murray, Peggy
Project Start
2003-09-29
Project End
2009-08-31
Budget Start
2007-09-01
Budget End
2009-08-31
Support Year
7
Fiscal Year
2007
Total Cost
$398,134
Indirect Cost

  Institution

Name
Illinois Institute of Technology
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
042084434
City
Chicago
State
IL
Country
United States
Zip Code
60616

  Publications

Tsang, Hector W H; Corrigan, Patrick W; Fung, Kelvin M T et al. (2012) Sino-American employer perspective about behavioral-driven health conditions: predictive analyses. Int J Psychiatry Clin Pract 16:284-92
Rusch, Nicolas; Corrigan, Patrick W; Todd, Andrew R et al. (2011) Automatic stereotyping against people with schizophrenia, schizoaffective and affective disorders. Psychiatry Res 186:34-9
Rusch, Nicolas; Todd, Andrew R; Bodenhausen, Galen V et al. (2010) Automatically activated shame reactions and perceived legitimacy of discrimination: A longitudinal study among people with mental illness. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry 41:60-3
Rüsch, Nicolas; Todd, Andrew R; Bodenhausen, Galen V et al. (2010) Biogenetic models of psychopathology, implicit guilt, and mental illness stigma. Psychiatry Res 179:328-32
Corrigan, Patrick W; Tsang, Hector W H; Shi, Kan et al. (2010) Chinese and American employers' perspectives regarding hiring people with behaviorally driven health conditions: the role of stigma. Soc Sci Med 71:2162-9
Rüsch, Nicolas; Corrigan, Patrick W; Wassel, Abigail et al. (2009) A stress-coping model of mental illness stigma: I. Predictors of cognitive stress appraisal. Schizophr Res 110:59-64
Rüsch, Nicolas; Todd, Andrew R; Bodenhausen, Galen V et al. (2009) Implicit versus explicit attitudes toward psychiatric medication: Implications for insight and treatment adherence. Schizophr Res 112:119-22
Rüsch, Nicolas; Corrigan, Patrick W; Powell, Karina et al. (2009) A stress-coping model of mental illness stigma: II. Emotional stress responses, coping behavior and outcome. Schizophr Res 110:65-71
Rao, Deepa; Angell, Beth; Lam, Chow et al. (2008) Stigma in the workplace: employer attitudes about people with HIV in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Chicago. Soc Sci Med 67:1541-9
Corrigan, Patrick W; Kuwabara, Sachiko; Tsang, Hector et al. (2008) Disability and work-related attitudes in employers from Beijing, Chicago, and Hong Kong. Int J Rehabil Res 31:347-50

Showing the most recent 10 out of 12 publications