A Stigma-Conscious Framework for Resilience and Posttraumatic Change.

Members of stigmatized groups face severe, chronic adversities that produce qualitatively unique and often challenging experiences. Further, access to resources relevant to overcoming adversity (e.g., time, money, energy, support) is depleted and blocked by stigmatization. However, current approaches to resilience and posttraumatic growth do not account for stigma, hindering our understanding of both constructs. Thus, drawing from the conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989), we develop a stigma-conscious framework on resilience and posttraumatic change (PTC) that extends existing work by enhancing realism and generalizability for stigmatized groups. We present a multilevel framework that explains how and why stigmatization directly (as an input) and indirectly (as an influencer of resource-related mechanisms) shapes resilience and PTC processes and outcomes. This framework advances interpretations of past work on resilience and posttraumatic growth, their respective conceptualizations and operationalizations, future model development, and interventions. We encourage and guide scholars to integrate stigma into resilience and PTC research and applications. Public Significance Statement: Stigma depletes and limits access to needed resources, and experiencing stigmatization alters which postadversity outcomes entail healthy adaptation to trauma (resilience) and/or growth (posttraumatic growth [PTG]). Existing resilience and PTG approaches often overlook stigma effects. Thus, this article presents a stigma-conscious framework that explains how and why researchers and practitioners can and should acknowledge and integrate the important role of stigma in resilience and PTG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]