摘要：Objectives. We analyzed experiences of stigmatization, concealment, and isolation among African American homeowners who were experiencing mortgage strain. Methods. We conducted semistructured interviews between March 2012 and May 2013 with 28 African American homeowners in a northeastern US city who were experiencing mortgage strain. We coded all of the transcripts and reviewed data for codes relating to stigma, sharing information, social support, social isolation, and the meaning of homeownership. Results. Our data showed that mortgage strain can be a concealable stigma. Participants internalized this stigma, expressing shame about their mortgage situation. Additionally, some participants anticipated that others would view them as less worthy given their mortgage trouble. In an effort to avoid stigmatization, many concealed their mortgage trouble, which often led to isolation. This stigmatization, concealment, and isolation seemed to contribute to participants’ depression, anxiety, and emotional distress. Conclusions. Stigma may exacerbate stress associated with mortgage strain and contribute to poor mental health, particularly among upwardly mobile African Americans who have overcome significant structural barriers to home ownership. Reducing stigma associated with mortgage strain may help to reduce the health consequences of this stressful life event. Between 2007 and 2010, foreclosure rates grew to unprecedented levels—from around 650 000 in 2007 to a record 2.9 million homes in 2010. 1 The recent home foreclosure crisis is also a health crisis. 2–4 In particular, recent studies have found that mortgage strain and foreclosure can lead to depression, anxiety, and poor mental health. 5–7 The material hardship and potential housing instability inherent to mortgage strain are themselves likely to be health demoting. 6 In addition, mortgage strain may threaten the pride and status that are associated with financial independence, and home ownership in particular, resulting in stigma. 7 These experiences of stigma may exacerbate stress associated with mortgage strain and contribute to poor mental health. The relationship between stigma and poor mental health is well established and is likely to operate through several pathways. 8 For one, individuals may incorporate stigma into their identities, and this process of internalization can lead to emotion dysregulation, low self-esteem, and interpersonal problems, all of which can contribute to poor mental health. 9 Anticipation of stigmatization also may produce stress that confers a risk to mental health. 10,11 Active discrimination, or enacted stigma, can be another source of health-demoting stress. 12,13 Mortgage strain is an example of a stigma that can be concealed. Concealable stigmas can result in unique stressors related to the challenges that individuals face in deciding whether and when to disclose their stigmatized identities and to vigilance and fear associated with the possibility of unwanted discovery. 8,11,14,15 Those who possess a concealable stigma may isolate themselves to avoid disclosure, and this concealment may prevent them from obtaining social support. 8 Social isolation is a well-established risk factor for poor mental health. 16,17 Likewise, social support is an important buffer to the relationship between stress and mental health. 16,17 This buffering role may be particularly important for the mental health of those who are experiencing a stressful life event such as mortgage strain. Relative to White homeowners, African American homeowners were more likely to experience mortgage strain during the recent recession. 18 The pride associated with homeownership and experiences of stigma related to its threatened loss may be particularly pronounced for African American homeowners who have faced a long history of barriers to the acquisition of credit, property, and equity. 19,20 Prior to the 1970s, many African Americans were denied mortgages as a result of redlining, which designated many predominantly African American neighborhoods as ineligible for government-backed Federal Housing Authority loans. 21 Fair housing legislation expanded homeownership opportunities for African American homeowners but was followed by deregulation of the mortgage industry and an explosion of risky subprime lending that disproportionately targeted African American communities. 22 Many African American homeowners who faced foreclosure during the recent recession were among the first in their families to own homes, having taken advantage of fair housing legislation in the 1970s or the expansion of risky alternative loan products in the 1990s. 22 We analyzed data from 28 in-depth interviews that we conducted with working-class African American homeowners who were experiencing mortgage strain. We examined how mortgage strain may threaten positive identities associated with homeownership and manifest itself as a source of stigma. Stigma emerged as a prominent theme in our interviews, and our data suggest that stigma plays a role in the experiences of emotional distress, anxiety, and depression that have been reported among homeowners facing mortgage strain. 7,23,24
