The Contributions of Illness Stigma, Health Communication Difficulties, and Thwarted Belongingness to Depressive Symptoms in Youth with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Youth with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) often experience difficulties communicating about their disease. It is suspected that the stigmatizing nature of IBD symptoms contributes to youths' health communication difficulties, leaving youth feeling disconnected from their social environment and potentially resulting in decreased social belongingness and poorer emotional functioning. In this study, we tested an illness stigma → health communication difficulties → thwarted belongingness → depressive symptoms serial mediation model. It was anticipated that youth illness stigma would confer a serial indirect effect on youth depressive symptoms through the sequential effects of stigma on health communication difficulties and thwarted social belongingness.Seventy-five youth with IBD between the ages of 10 and 18 completed measures of perceived illness stigma, health communication difficulties, thwarted belongingness, and depressive symptoms.Results indicated a significant illness stigma → thwarted belongingness → depressive symptoms simple mediation path. Importantly, findings also revealed a significant serial mediation path for illness stigma → health communication difficulties → thwarted belongingness → depressive symptoms.Youth who perceive greater IBD stigma appear to experience increased difficulty communicating about their IBD with others, which in turn is associated with feelings of thwarted social belongingness and ultimately elevated depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that difficulty communicating about IBD is one potential route by which illness stigma has a negative impact on youth adjustment outcomes. Results could also inform clinical interventions to address IBD stigma and health communication difficulties associated with the social and emotional challenges in youth with IBD.