Stigma and Stigmatization

Abstract

Recent scholarship has conceptually reframed HIV-related stigma as a social rather than individual process that perpetuates and sustains relations of power that exclude and devalue people and groups. This approach shifts the focus from how individuals act towards one another to consider how culture and history construct social hierarchies and breed intergroup difference and domination that underlie HIV and AIDS-related stigma. As such, researchers have challenged conventional individual-level interventions (e.g., cognitive-behavioral approaches) and argued for structural interventions aimed at shifting community paradigms about HIV and its intersection with other causes of inequity. This approach, for example, has recently informed studies that examine the unique roles of African American and Chinese ethnic churches in reshaping cultural scripts on HIV prevention in their respective communities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)