Date of Award
8-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Applied Psychology
Committee Chair/Advisor
Robert R. Sinclair
Committee Member
Patrick Rosopa
Committee Member
Thomas Britt
Abstract
Few studies examine the stigma associated with reporting stress-related work concerns, or stress stigma. When employees refrain from communicating their experience of stressors due to the worry of negative repercussions, leaders become unable to gain full insight into the organizational factors causing stress. Learning more about employees’ reluctance to communicate stress concerns can help companies identify workplace stressors. Additionally, prior research has shown that an individual's core self-evaluation (i.e., fundamental evaluation of self) influences how they interpret and react to environmental situations. Individuals with higher levels of CSE may experience fewer adverse consequences from unfavorable job characteristics than a person with low CSE. Using a secondary dataset of 410 United States workers, this study employed a longitudinal design to investigate how organizational factors (i.e., psychosocial safety climate, health climate, and health-oriented leadership behaviors) influence the likelihood of experiencing stress stigma (i.e., coworker and supervisor stress stigma) over time. This study also explored how individual’s core self-evaluation buffered the relationship between each organizational factor and stress stigma. Results indicated that supervisor health climate was negatively related to supervisor stress stigma and demonstrated a stronger association to this form of stigma than organizational health climate. Psychosocial safety climate and CSE were negatively related to both supervisor and coworker stress stigma. Results did not reveal any significant interaction effects. Moreover, these findings highlight the importance of both proximal and upstream organizational factors, and individual resources shaping the experience of stress stigma.
Recommended Citation
Epting, Kristieona L., "Can Employees Report Stress-Related Problems Without Repercussions? Understanding the Determinants of Stress Stigma" (2026). All Theses. 4841.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/4841
Author ORCID Identifier
0009-0000-7179-5048