Depression Self-Stigma as a Mediator of the Relationship Between Depression Severity and Avoidance

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which self-stigmatizing attitudes mediated the relationship between depression severity and avoidance. Participants were 167 community members with elevated depressive symptoms who completed a questionnaire packet that included measures of depression severity, self-stigma, treatment stigma, previous stigmatizing experiences, and behavioral avoidance. Self-stigma, treatment stigma, and stigmatizing experiences were found to partially mediate the relationship between depression severity and avoidance. Findings from the current study support a model in which an individual experiences depressive symptoms, which leads to stigmatizing experiences and an increase in the salience of stigmatizing attitudes about depression, which in turn leads to avoidance. Depression self-stigma plays an important role in exacerbating avoidance behaviors within the context of depressive symptoms. Future research would benefit from examining depression self-stigma as a mediator between depression severity and treatment seeking.