Resumen de Stigma in an era of medicalisation and anxious parenting: how proximity and culpability shape middle-class parents� experiences of disgrace

Francis Ara

• Abstract This study examines the stigma experiences of middle-class parents whose children have physical, psychological and behavioural problems. Qualitative interviews with 34 mothers and 21 fathers demonstrate that parents experience two types of stigma: courtesy stigma and the stigma of being a bad parent. While the former stems from close social proximity to stigmatised children, the latter stems from ostensible culpability for children�s problems. Both characteristics are social constructs embedded in the larger contexts of an anxious, intensive parenting culture and the problematisation and medicalisation of childhood. As a consequence, mothers, parents whose children have invisible disabilities, and the parents of young children are particularly susceptible to negative labelling. These findings highlight the constructed and political nature of parents� stigmatisation