Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

The research study that I conducted is on perceived stigma in interracial/interethnic couples and its impact on family relationships. With the growing number of interracial/interethnic couples in the United States and the current climate regarding racism in United States, I am interested in examining how the stigma that interracial couples face impacts their relationship satisfaction and quality, as well as their relationship with family members. The study examines perceived stigma both internalized and experienced among individuals who have felt racially discriminated because of their interracial relationship by their family and their partner's family. Thus, the current study focused on whether perceived stigma in interracial couples impacts their family relationships which ultimately is associated with their relationship satisfaction.

Schizophrenia is a mental health disorder that affects an individual's ability to function per societal expectations, leading to the onset of stigmatization and discrimination. This can affect the course and outcome of the individual's diagnosis, which impacts several aspects of life, including interpersonal relationships, self-care, and medical attention. Reclassifying the term "schizophrenia" can create a better understanding of the disorder's symptoms and increase funding and research to alleviate the stigmatization currently affecting individuals with this diagnosis.

The thesis represented here was for my Honors undergraduate thesis project, which explored the social stigma of disability and its representational differences between congenital and acquired disability within the user comments in an online forum of discussion. Existing literature on Critical Disability Studies and Rehabilitative Psychology has noted the nature of disability stigma and lack of accurate representation in social settings as well as the ramifications that follow. (Mis)representations of disability can result in bias, inaccessibility, and other social ramifications such as microaggressions because of the long history of oppression and stigmatization that disabled individuals have experienced (Keller & Galgay, 2010). Data was collected from two online forums addressing disability stigma and analyzed using both deductive coding and inductive emergent analysis of recurrent themes, experiences, or ideas that were expressed in user comments. Analysis of user comments helped address the goal of this research which aimed to explore stigma, identity, and disability within a representational context. This thesis, then, wanted to better understand disability stigma by analyzing the representational differences (if any) of congenital and acquired disabled user’s comments.

While people are scrolling through their various social media apps, they encounter messaging that does not necessarily promote good mental health. Rather, images, posts, and videos often make a mockery of those with mental health problems, leaving the viewers to believe that mental health problems often lead to dangerousness, criminality, and unpredictability. It then is essential that social media messaging about mental health, and its stigmas are analyzed and solutions to promote better mental health messages on these platforms are implemented because they affect everyone. Anti-stigma campaigns may be useful in bringing awareness to mental health and its stigmas, so two anti-stigma campaigns, Stamp Out Stigma and StigmaFree, were analyzed in this study. To understand the types of messages people are receiving about mental health and its stigmas from anti-stigma organizations on social media platforms, three research questions were developed. A thematic analysis was conducted that included 205 posts from 2021 that came from the campaigns' Facebook and Twitter accounts. Several themes emerged for each research question as well as multiple limitations for this study. Ultimately, social media messaging about mental health and its stigmas must continue to be researched.