Abstract
Bodies of research pertaining to specific stigmatized statuses have typically developed in separate domains and have focused on single outcomes at 1 level of analysis, thereby obscuring the full significance of stigma as a fundamental driver of population health. Here we provide illustrative evidence on the health consequences of stigma and present a conceptual framework describing the psychological and structural pathways through which stigma influences health. Because of its pervasiveness, its disruption of multiple life domains (e.g., resources, social relationships, and coping behaviors), and its corrosive impact on the health of populations, stigma should be considered alongside the other major organizing concepts for research on social determinants of population health.
Keywords
Stigma (botany)PopulationPsychologyCoping (psychology)Health equitySocial determinants of healthSocial stigmaInequalityPublic healthSocial psychologyEnvironmental healthMedicinePsychiatryHuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
Affiliated Institutions
Related Publications
Conceptualizing Stigma
Social science research on stigma has grown dramatically over the past two decades, particularly in social psychology, where researchers have elucidated the ways in which people...
The Health Stigma and Discrimination Framework: a global, crosscutting framework to inform research, intervention development, and policy on health-related stigmas
Stigma is a well-documented barrier to health seeking behavior, engagement in care and adherence to treatment across a range of health conditions globally. In order to halt the ...
Perceiver threat in social interactions with stigmatized others.
The extent to which stigmatized interaction partners engender perceivers' threat reactions (i.e., stigma-threat hypothesis) was examined. Experiments 1 and 2 included the manipu...
The COVID-19 pandemic and health inequalities
This essay examines the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for health inequalities. It outlines historical and contemporary evidence of inequalities in pandemics—drawing on i...
Life stressors, personal and social resources, and depression: A 4-year structural model.
By extending earlier stress-resistance research with a 1-year time lag, findings with 254 adults show that adaptive personality characteristics and positive family support opera...
Publication Info
- Year
- 2013
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 103
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 813-821
- Citations
- 2499
- Access
- Closed
External Links
Social Impact
Altmetric
PlumX Metrics
Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions
Citation Metrics
2499
OpenAlex
Cite This
Mark L. Hatzenbuehler,
Jo C. Phelan,
Bruce G. Link
(2013).
Stigma as a Fundamental Cause of Population Health Inequalities.
American Journal of Public Health
, 103
(5)
, 813-821.
https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2012.301069
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.2105/ajph.2012.301069