When Stigma-by-Association Threatens, Self-Esteem Helps: Self-Esteem Protects Volunteers in Stigmatizing Contexts

Abstract

Drawing from theory and research on self-esteem as an important coping resource, we hypothesized that higher self-esteem would protect volunteers from the pernicious effects of stigma-by-association. In a longitudinal study of AIDS volunteers, higher anticipated stigma-by-association deterred the initiation of volunteerism for people with lower self-esteem. Three months later, greater stigma-by-association was related to less contact with an HIV+client in public (relative to private) settings, but only among volunteers lower in self-esteem. Moreover, greater relative public client contact predicted less overall satisfaction, but only for volunteers with relatively lower self-esteem. Implications for coping, stigma, and volunteer organizations are discussed.

Notes

*p < .05. **p < .01.

^† p < .10. *p < .05.

¹As much as we are reassured by the convergence of findings for the individual items, the question of why the reliability of this measure was low remains to be addressed. It may be due simply to the small number of items (only three) in the measure. Alternatively, reliability may have been depressed because the items tapped stigma-related concerns in different settings or from different targets: (a) friends, (b) family members, and (c) other people. There is no necessary reason why approval from friends should imply approval from family or from other people, and vice versa, which would result in low correlations among the individual items. It is also possible that restrictions of range depressed the correlations and overall reliability for the composite, perhaps because prospective volunteers who anticipated the greatest disapproval actually terminated their service before we collected data from them.

*p < .05. **p < .01.

^† p < .10. *p < .05.