Coordinating Boundaries and Negotiating Mental Health Diagnoses and Disclosure: An Exploration of Stigma and Communication Privacy Management

For quite some time, researchers have tried to reduce stigma and misconceptions about individuals diagnosed with a mental illness. Researchers have examined stigma towards individuals diagnosed with a mental illness, and the internalized stigma that can result. Additionally, researchers have analyzed the dialectical push and pull that occurs between privacy and confidentiality for self-disclosures. Past research has explored disclosure of a mental illness in the context of family members, psychiatrists, employers, friends, and in academic settings. However, there is a lack of research examining how risk perceptions are affected by internalized stigma, thus impacting young adults’ intentions to disclose their mental illness diagnosis to close friends and coordinate boundaries. To address this gap in research, the purpose of this thesis is to illustrate and extend upon empirical evidence regarding self-disclosure and Communication Privacy Management Theory (CPM) by proposing that internalized stigma is an antecedent of disclosure risk perception