'Don't y'all like the way we talk?': The impact of recall of perceived stigma of Kentucky-accented speakers on their social identity and self-esteem

The purpose of this study was to explore how recall of perceived stigma of Kentucky-accented speakers affects their social identity and self-esteem. The participants consisted of 90 undergraduate students at a community college in South Central Kentucky. The participants were randomly selected from a larger population of native speakers of English who were at least 18 years of age and had always lived in Kentucky. The participants were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group. The experimental group was asked to recall an incident in which they were stigmatized based on their accent. The control group was asked to recall what their morning routine was like. All the participants were asked to complete the same packet of surveys: the CSES (Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), and a demographic questionnaire. A one-way MANOVA was used for data analysis. The results indicated that recall of perceived stigmatization of Kentucky-accented speakers did not show an overall effect on social identity and self-esteem. ANOVA was used to analyze the data of each dependent variable; social identity and self-esteem. The results of the univariate tests did not show a significant impact of recall of perceived stigma on social identity; however, it did show a significant negative impact on self-esteem. Recommendations for future research are offered.