Stigma is constantly changing. It waxes and wanes throughout history, is experienced and perpetuated by humans who develop over their life course, and is tied to social statuses (like illnesses and identities) that are gained, change, or lost over people’s lives. Although stigma is inherently fluid, our research and interventions typically treat stigma as if it were fixed or stagnant. We have argued that better integrating time into stigma research can accelerate our understanding of how and when stigma harms health as well as our ability to intervene to address stigma and improve health. We focus on three timescales, including the historical context, human development, and stigma course.

Keep a look out for our upcoming special issue time in Stigma and Health. And, read more about stigma and time in this paper:

Earnshaw, V. A., Watson, R. J., Eaton, L. A., Brousseau, N. M., Laurenceau, J. P., & Fox, A. B. (2022). Integrating time into stigma and health research. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1(4), 236-247.

There has been a proliferation of research on mental illness stigma; however, lack of consistency and clarity in the conceptualization and measurement of mental illness stigma has limited the accumulation of scientific knowledge about mental illness stigma and its consequences.