Citation

Weisz BM, Quinn DM, Williams MK. J. Health Psychol. 2015; 21(12): 2934-2943.

Affiliation

University of Connecticut, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1359105315589392

PMID

26078297

Abstract

This research examined whether the relationship between perceived social support and health would be moderated by level of outness for people living with different concealable stigmatized identities (mental illness, substance abuse, domestic violence, rape, or childhood abuse). A total of 394 people living with a concealable stigmatized identity completed a survey. Consistent with hypotheses, at high levels of outness, social support predicted better health; at low levels of outness, social support was less predictive of health. People concealing a stigmatized identity may only be able to reap the health benefits of social support if they are "out" about the stigmatized identity.

Language: en