ABSTRACT
Health researchers continue to study an ever-widening range of stigmatized populations, providing valuable information for health prevention, treatment, and utilization. This chapter focuses on how best to adapt methodologies for research with stigmatized groups. We begin with one distinction: stigma that emerges as a research theme during a study and stigma as a component of the sampling plan. This chapter focuses on the latter. In certain studies, some but not all participants report stigmatizing experiences, yet, in some of these studies, population segmentation is not a driving impetus for the study. This type of stigma research is markedly different from cases where a specific group is sampled in order to investigate a phenomena related to a uniting stigmatizing factor. This chapter examines the challenges researchers encounter when they choose to focus on stigmatized populations, as well as recommendations for addressing those problems. It begins by defining population more broadly, and then narrows to define stigmatized populations. The chapter continues with conceptualizations of stigma and stigmatized populations, before turning to four recommended methodological practices and final comments.
