Browsing by Author "Coelho, Mariana Quelhas Marques"
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- The Impact of Stigmatizing Experiences and Self-Stigma on Mental Health and Suicidal Behavior: Results from the Community of Portuguese Language CountriesPublication . Coelho, Mariana Quelhas Marques; Pereira, Henrique MarquesThis dissertation in Clinical and Health Psychology is presented in a scientific article format and aims to assess stigmatizing experiences, self-stigma, mental health, and suicidal behavior, comparing differences between countries of residence. Literature demonstrates that stigma and, more specifically, self-stigma have a major impact on people’s lives, namely on their mental health and quality of life. People who have self-stigma endorse negative stereotypes about themselves, which may aggravate mental disorders and/or suicidal thoughts and, eventually, attempts. A sample of 1006 participants were asked to answer a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Portuguese version of the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18), the Suicidal Behaviours Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R) and the Paradox of Self-Stigma scale (PaSS-24). It was possible to conclude that participants with higher levels of self-stigma and stigmatizing experiences presented significantly higher mental health issues and suicidal behavior. Furthermore, mental health issues and suicidal behavior were positively correlated with self-stigma. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that sociodemographic variables, number of stigmatizing experiences, and self-stigma explained 25.3% of the variability in mental health issues while sociodemographic variables, number of stigmatizing experiences, and self-stigma explained 13.5% of the variability in suicidal behavior. These investigation offers an important contribution to understanding to the knowledge regarding the relationship between stigma, mental health and suicidal behavior and how important is to address stigma in our communities in order to reduce its impact.