Chronic illness in the workplace: stigma, identity threat and strain.
Chronic illness affects a large and growing number of workers in the United States and globally. Stigmatization (devaluation) at work based on chronic illness may be stressful for individuals and therefore may lead to negative psychological consequences (i.e. strains). In order to better understand stressful experiences of stigma for workers with chronic illnesses, a model of stigma-related identity threat (perceptions that one is at risk of being treated negatively at work because of chronic illness) was tested on a sample of 203 working adults with chronic illnesses. The following variables related to workers' perceptions of chronic illness-related identity threat: workers' boundary flexibility (flexibility in managing their work and life), their meta-perceptions of devaluation (perceptions of others' devaluation of them based on illness) and their job self-efficacy (feelings of confidence related to performing their job). In turn, perceptions of identity threat related to both feelings of psychological strain and (lower levels of) perceived work ability. Surprisingly, neither stigma centrality (how fundamental illness is to one's identity) nor supervisor support related to workers' identity threat perceptions.
['McGonagle|Alyssa K|AK|', 'Barnes-Farrell|Janet L|JL|']
D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D002908:Chronic Disease D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D010465:Perception D012307:Risk Factors D012649:Self Concept D013240:Stereotyping D013315:Stress, Psychological D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires D017132:Workplace D055815:Young Adult
chronic illness stigma identity threat strain stress