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Updated: Oct 8, 2025

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
Group identity in blindness groups predicts life satisfaction and lower anxiety and depression
1Graduate School of Education.
Objective:
Group disability identity (GDI) refers to feelings of connection to the disability community. Researchers have proposed that disability identity protects against disability-related stressors. However, few empirical studies have examined this hypothesis, and psychological research is needed that examines the role of GDI in mental health and related outcomes.
Method:
This cross-sectional study examined the association between 2 GDI attitudes (disability integration and disability isolation) and 3 mental health-related indicators (life satisfaction, anxiety, and depression) in a sample of 187 U.S. adult members of visual impairment or blindness (VI) community groups.
Results:
Findings from hierarchical linear regression indicated that positive GDI attitudes predicted higher life satisfaction (ß = .25 p < .001 for integration; ß = -.45, p < .001 for isolation) and that higher disability isolation predicted higher anxiety (ß = .26, p < .001) and depression (ß = .40, p < .001), after controlling for demographic and impairment-related factors. Younger age was also a significant predictor of anxiety and depression in both GDI models, and female gender (ß = -.21, p < .001) was a significant predictor of anxiety in the disability isolation model.
Discussion:
The present study found that positive GDI attitudes predicted positive mental health-related indicators in a sample of U.S. adult members of VI community groups, controlling for other factors. Results of the present study further indicated that male participants reported lower anxiety and depression.
Conclusions:
Given present findings, rehabilitation practitioners may consider supporting clients' mental health and related outcomes by facilitating their exploration of disability identity attitudes (see Forber-Pratt et al., 2019), including feelings of connection to the disability community. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
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