The relationship between stigma, psychological distress, and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The impact of stigma on mental health problems among medical healthcare workers and individuals with mental disorders has been well reported worldwide. However, there is a dearth of related research on other occupations that also worth investigating. In Hong Kong (HK), the fourth wave of the COVID-19 outbreak was one of the most significant outbreaks, and the group that initiated and caused it was predominately the “dance group cluster.” This study looked into the relationship between stigma, psychological distress, and resilience among the HK dance community during the COVID-19 pandemic. One-hundred and twelve (N = 112) participants (mean age = 28.96 years, SD = 9.88) who met the inclusion criteria for this crosssectional descriptive correlation study completed an anonymous online survey, which included 48.2% university students (control group) and 51.8% who works in dance-related occupations (dancing group). Results indicated that participants in the dance group had significantly perceived more career-related stigma (p < .001), psychological distress (p < .001), and resilience (p = .02) in the COVID-19 pandemic than those in control group. Only the dance group revealed significant correlations between the study variables. Resilience functioned as a mediator (but not a moderator) in the association between stigma and psychological distress, and when it was considered a predictor, stigma and psychological distress were both reduced. The bidirectional association between stigma (as state or trait) and psychological distress should be investigated further in the future. Other plausible aspects in positive psychology could be examined in future mediation and/or moderation research on the association between stigma and psychological distress.