A Research On Stigma Experience Of Problem Students

Almost in every class, there are some students, who have problems on learning or behavior. Because of their defects, problem students are probably stigmatized. From the perspective of problem students, the paper studied stigma for problem students through the analysis of the description of their experience of stigma.Firstly, the concepts of "stigma", "problem students" and "stigma for problem students" were defined, based on literature review. And then the research wanted to answer the following four questions:(1)how did problem students perceive the stigma? (2) What were the effects of the stigma on them? (3) What were they attribute the stigma to? And (4) how did they cope with the stigma?The research finds that problem students perceive stigma when they interact with teachers, classmates or parents or others, whose language, attitude and behavior imply that the students are problem students. The negative information problem students received has a great impact on their mind, their daily life and their interpersonal relationship.Because of the stigma, problem students are often under great psychological pressure. They become timorous when they communicate with others, and thus they hardly make friends. They feel lonely. Or they just make friends with the students who are the same to them.Facing the stigma, problem students have different reactions. On stigma attribution, some students tend to attribute it to themselves and the others attribute to prejudice of teachers, classmates or parents. On coping with stigma, some students are positive and the others are negative. The positive strategies include three subtypes: problem-solving strategy, alternative-seeking strategy and communication strategy. Also, the negative strategies include three subtypes:escape, obedience, opposition. Different strategies may generate different results. During coping with the stigma transformation occurs, and there are certain paths.Finally, according to the findings of the research, I give some advice to teachers, parents and problem students, in order to weaken or eliminate the effects of stigma.