Face concern and affiliate stigma in caregivers of children with developmental disabilities: a cross-sectional study in southwest China

Objectives The prevalence of individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) is rapidly growing, however there is underdeveloped policy and services for their caregivers in many countries worldwide and multiple environmental barriers including stigma and discrimination. The extent of stigmatization may be impacted by numerous factors, yet the influence of face culture on stigmatization faced by individuals caring for children with DD in China’s sociocultural environment remains inadequately explored. This study aims to assess how caregivers perceive their concerns about face and affiliate stigma, explore the relationship between these two factors among individuals raising children with DD in southwest China, and verify whether this relationship is moderated by child gender.Methods Utilizing a cross-sectional design, two hundred and thirty-nine caregivers of children with DD, predominantly those with autism spectrum disorder (39.33%) and intellectual disability (60.25%), filled out Chinese versions of two self-report questionnaires, specifically the Loss of Face Scale and the Affiliate Stigma Scale.Results The findings indicated that caregivers of children with DD frequently encountered concerns related to face and affiliate stigma, and caregivers’ concern for face significantly contributed to increased levels of affiliate stigma. Moreover, child gender moderated the relationship between face concern and affiliate stigma.Conclusions The families caring for children with DD would profit from developing appropriate psycho-social support and services to address their challenges. We suggest that researchers and practitioners could manage caregivers’ concern of face lose while reducing their internalization of stigma, especially for caregivers of sons with DD.