Oppong Asante Kwaku, Onyeaka Henry
Department of Psychology, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.
Department of Psychology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Psychol Health Med. 2022 Mar;27(3):589-597. doi: 10.1080/13548506.2021.1887501. Epub 2021 Feb 9.
Research on youth homelessness has showed a link between emotional distress and social stigma. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship have received little empirical attention. This study was conducted to examine the mediating effect of social support that accounts for the link. Standard questionnaires that assessed emotional distress, stigma and social support were interviewer-administered to 193 homeless adolescents (50.4% male; ean = 13.21 (= 2.06). The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and mediation analyses were used to analyse the data. The study revealed that both self-blame and general stigma were positively related to emotional distress; but negatively related to social support. In the mediation analysis, general stigma significantly predicted decreased perceived social support and had a direct positive influence on emotional problems. However, the levels of self-blame was neither significantly associated with perceived social support nor had a significant indirect influence on the level of emotional problems. Both self-blame and general stigma also did not have a significant indirect influence on the level of emotional problems through perceived social support. These findings call for further research to examine the complex mechanism underlying stigma and mental health outcomes.
关于青年无家可归问题的研究表明，情绪困扰与社会耻辱感之间存在联系。然而，这种关系背后的机制很少受到实证关注。本研究旨在检验社会支持在这种联系中所起的中介作用。研究人员使用标准问卷对193名无家可归青少年（男性占50.4%；平均年龄=13.21岁（标准差=2.06））进行访谈，以评估他们的情绪困扰、耻辱感和社会支持情况。采用皮尔逊积差相关系数和中介分析来分析数据。研究发现，自责和一般耻辱感都与情绪困扰呈正相关；但与社会支持呈负相关。在中介分析中，一般耻辱感显著预测了感知到的社会支持减少，并对情绪问题有直接的正向影响。然而，自责水平与感知到的社会支持既无显著关联，对情绪问题水平也无显著间接影响。自责和一般耻辱感通过感知到的社会支持对情绪问题水平也均无显著间接影响。这些发现呼吁进一步研究，以检验耻辱感与心理健康结果之间的复杂机制。
