Mental health issues impact a significant portion of the population worldwide, and result in the acquisition of therapy. Despite its efficaciousness, individuals experience several barriers in...Show moreMental health issues impact a significant portion of the population worldwide, and result in the acquisition of therapy. Despite its efficaciousness, individuals experience several barriers in entering therapy. External factors such as financial constraints or availability can impact internal factors such as one’s motivation or self-stigma. Previous literature has established that motivation influences treatment entry and therapeutic outcomes, and that self-stigma impacts such motivation. It is also established that self-stigma may impact self-disclosure during therapy; however, the manner in which motivation, self-stigma, and self-disclosure interact cohesively is unknown. Therefore, the present study investigated the following research question: How does self-stigma in seeking help and motivation to join therapy impact an individual’s self-disclosure during therapy? It was hypothesised that high levels of self-stigma would lead to low levels of self-disclosure during therapy, mediated by motivation. It was further hypothesised that this relationship would correlate with the unsolved issues after therapy. A custom-made questionnaire was utilised, consisting of pre-existing scales. An ANOVA, mediation analysis, and MRA all yielded non-significant results. The effect of the proposed relationship on therapeutic outcomes could not be investigated. Thus, two other relationships were investigated, yet both yielded non-significant results. The direct effect of self-stigma on self-disclosure was significant. The non-significant results may be attributed to confounding variables, or the study’s limitations. This study encourages future research into the relationship between variables influencing the therapeutic process and its outcomes given the prevalence of mental health issues.Show less
Sexual minority individuals (SMI) are at high risk of developing mental health problems. Building upon the concepts of the minority stress and minority strength models, this cross-sectional...Show moreSexual minority individuals (SMI) are at high risk of developing mental health problems. Building upon the concepts of the minority stress and minority strength models, this cross-sectional secondary data analysis aimed to identify further factors that impact the mental health of SMI. The following hypotheses were tested: (1) the higher the parental acceptance (PA), the lower the internalized homonegativity (IH), (2) the higher the parental acceptance, the higher the self-respect (SR), (3) the higher the IH, the lower the SR, and (4) the relationship between PA and SR will be mediated by IH. Self-identified SMI respondents - mainly young, educated, Western European women - filled out an online survey consisting of the Parental Acceptance of Sexual Minority Identity questionnaire, the Internalized Homonegativity scale, and the Self-Respect scale (n = 249; nbisexual = 131; ngay = 59; nother = 59; Mage = 21.6). Hypothesis one was rejected as there was no significant correlation between PA and IH (r(247) = -.06, p = .38). In contrast, there was a moderate positive correlation between PA and SR (r(247) = .34, p < .001) confirming hypothesis two, and a weak negative correlation between IH and SR (r(247) = -.17, p = .008) confirming hypothesis three. The conditions for a mediation analysis were not satisfied and therefore hypothesis four was not tested. These results provide preliminary support for relationships between different constructs that implicate mental health in SMI. Future research should investigate the causal relationship between these constructs before any interventions can be applied.Show less
Patients with a personality disorder may experience stigmatization, sometimes even on a daily basis. However, research suggests that not everyone with a personality disorder experiences it in the...Show morePatients with a personality disorder may experience stigmatization, sometimes even on a daily basis. However, research suggests that not everyone with a personality disorder experiences it in the same way, and that the extent to which it is internalized is also different for different persons, depending on a number of possible variables. The aim of the current study is to investigate the role of some of these variables, i.e. that of the type of personality disorder and age. It also examines whether the age at which patients have first been diagnosed might influence the extent to which they internalize stigmatization. In total, 36 participants from two specialized outpatient clinics filled out four questionnaires on stigma, in a cross-sectional comparative study design. The results show that neither the type of personality disorder nor age play a role, and that the age at which someone receives a diagnosis of personality disorder does not predict whether stigma will be internalized. Although the present study has its limitations, such as a modest representation of the target group and low statistical power, it is of value because it focuses on the patients’ perspective and paves the way for further research on this topic.Show less
