Stigma and attitudes towards children with ADHD, depression and LD
The term ‘stigma’ has been around for decades, and it refers to any characteristic that marks a group or individual as different (Goffman, 1963). Key factors in the concept of stigma are the negative attitudes aroused in individuals in response to those they perceive as different. According to Gottlieb and Gottlieb (1977), attitudes can be divided into conative and cognitive components. The conative component is the degree to which people are willing to be socially close or distant from a person. The cognitive component is reflected through the positive or negative attributes ascribed to a person.