Understanding Perceptions After Disclosing STI Results: Insights from Research
🚨Research Alert: Part 2 🚨This graphic is adapted from the work of Emily Scheinfeld (2021) in her article entitled: “Shame and STIs: An exploration of Emerging Adult Students’ Felt Shame and Stigma Towards Getting Tested for and Disclosing Sexually Transmitted Infections.”
Reminders about the study:
Emerging Adults: defined as those who fall within the age range of 18-26
Study Participants: 452 undergraduate students ages 18-25 from a large American Southwestern university; 18 students chose not to disclose their demographic information, however, over half the reported sample identified as non-Hispanic and white (62%) and the majority were women (80.7%); 78.7% reported being sexually active; 40% identified as single, 44.3% were in a long-term, monogamous relationships, and 14.4% reported being in casual relationships.
The last graph showed participants’ perceptions of how they would be treated (better/worse/no differently) by various groups after disclosing that they were tested for STIs. Whereas, this graph shows their perceptions from various groups AFTER disclosing their results.
This sample felt that members of worship groups (49.3%) and casual sex partners (46.2%) would perceive them as significantly worse after disclosing STI results (this did not indicate if the results were positive or negative, nor did it specify STIs).
If we look at the graph for the amount of participants who felt they would be treated no differently, we see from Friends down to Police that this appears to be the majority perception.
Similar to the graph about perceptions of STI testing, Doctors/HCP were most likely to be perceived by this group as seeing someone as better after sharing their STI results.
I will continue sharing further information from this study in future posts, as the research results provide important perspective about the impact of how knowing more about STIs impacts shame/stigma around STIs and testing.