How Culture Shapes and Protects against Mental Illness Stigma: Empirical Illustrations from Chinese Groups

Mental illness stigma is known to vary by culture. Few theoretical formulations exist that describe how culture shapes the experience of stigma ‘across cultures.’  Dr. Yang will present a new theoretical framework that suggests ‘what matters most' -  meaning, the capacities that define what it means to be a full-fledged 'person' in cultural groups. He will discuss how this novel framework facilitates the identification and prediction of stigma's cultural effects.

 Dr. Yang will illustrate this theoretical framework with three studies: 1) qualitative study of 50 Chinese immigrants with psychosis; 2) national vignette study with 56 Chinese immigrants and 589 European Americans; and 3) experimental memory paradigm with 48 Chinese American and 37 European American college students.

 These studies provide new evidence that 'threat to lineage' constitutes a threat to 'what matters most' among Chinese groups - which exacerbates stigma in this population. Dr. Yang will also illustrate how these findings have important implications for culture-specific measurement and anti-stigma interventions in Chinese groups, and will discuss applications to other cultural settings (including Indian and Chilean).