Rural Community Stigma Towards Children with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Stigma related to mental health issues is felt by parents and children in rural communities and can pose a barrier to seeking mental health help for children and parents of children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Children living in rural communities may face obstacles to receiving mental health care, including unique forms of stigma associated with living in small communities and the lack of access to affordable care. This interactive poster presentation examines and compares levels of stigma towards children with EBD and their families associated with four different community settings: neighborhood, school, workplace, and church. The relationship between child and parent characteristics, stigma specific to community settings, and service-seeking stigma are also examined in order to both confirm the factor structure of an existing measure, and identify significant predictors of service-seeking stigma. Results 1) indicate that community setting-specific stigma is present as significantly different levels, 2) confirm the factor structure of an existing measure of stigma related to service seeking, and 3) identify workplace stigma as a significant predictor of serviceseeking stigma when holding a number of child and parent characteristics constant. Results also indicate that further research focusing on the relationship between perceived stigma and service use behavior is needed. While viewing this poster, participants will be asked to read a short vignette about a child with EBD and respond to three to five questions from the perspective of a community member. The author will lead small group discussions about better understanding the role of community in the construction of stigma. Participants will be encouraged to voice their own potentially stigmatized beliefs and attitudes about EBD in order for the group to both problematize this issue and better understand our role in stigmatizing.