Valerie Earnshaw

Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Sciences University of Delaware

  • Newark DE

Prof. Earnshaw examines associations between stigma and health inequities.

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University of Delaware

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1 min

The harmful impact of stigma on individuals struggling with opioid addiction

People in recovery from opioid use disorder often struggle with decisions to tell others about their past substance use, treatment, and/or recovery. Although disclosures that go well can lead to social support that is helpful for recovery, disclosures that go poorly can lead to stigma that can harm recovery. Valerie Earnshaw, associate professor in the College of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Delaware, specializes in speaking about addiction and stigma and can speak on this phenomenon.  She recently spoke about this topic a the annual Marion H. Steele Symposium at UD.  Earnshaw charted the growth of the opioid crisis in the United States, discussed stigma as a complex social process with the power to affect health outcomes and shared her work on an intervention she designed to help people with the disclosure process. She can be contacted by clicking her "View Profile" button. 

Valerie Earnshaw

Social

Biography

Valerie Earnshaw's research focuses on understanding and addressing associations between stigma and health inequities across the lifespan. She aims to contribute to knowledge of the mechanisms whereby stigma undermines health outcomes as well as interventions to reduce stigma and improve the wellbeing of stigmatized populations.

Industry Expertise

Health and Wellness
Mental Health Care

Areas of Expertise

Health Inequities
Health Outcomes
HIV Stigma
AIDS Stigma
Stigmatized Conditions‎

Answers

How does stigma impact individuals struggling with opioid addiction? 
Valerie Earnshaw

People in recovery from opioid use disorder often struggle with decisions to tell others about their past substance use, treatment, and/or recovery. Although disclosures that go well can lead to social support that is helpful for recovery, disclosures that go poorly can lead to stigma that can harm recovery.

Media Appearances

Sex, Drugs & Science

Podcast  online

Interviewing your favorite sex and drugs scientists about what they study and why. Each week features an interview with a scientist studying topics such as: pornography, opioids, HIV, harm reduction, and other topics. Co-hosted by Valerie Earnshaw and Carly Hill with help from the UD Stigma Lab. Follow @sexdrugsscience on Instagram for updates.

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Coronavirus pandemic: How to help senior citizens

NBC News  online

2020-04-24

"Like all people, seniors are vulnerable to seeing and believing misinformation about COVID-19 on the internet and their social media feeds,” says Valerie Earnshaw, a social psychologist and assistant professor of human development and education at the University of Delaware. “We know that people who believe more misinformation are less likely to follow public health recommendations to protect themselves and others from this virus.”

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Don't Let Fear of Covid-19 Turn into Stigma

Harvard Business Review  online

2020-04-06

Human evolution has wired us to stigmatized sick people. But that’s dangerous. During the current pandemic, shunning Covid-19 survivors will exacerbate mental health issues. It also will contribute to the spread of the disease as mildly ill patients will be reluctant to admit they are sick. We need leaders and celebrities to normalize the disease, corporate leaders to make clear that a company’s diversity values extend to Covid-19 patients, and managers to make sure there is no stigma around being sick at work. Finally, we all need to reach out to make social contact with people who have been sick or have close friends and family who are sick. Pandemics remind us of how connected we all are. Our shared vulnerability to this virus is a source of solidarity.

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Articles

“I want the doctors to know that I am as bright as a candle”: Experiences with and Hopes for Doctor Interactions Among Malaysian Key Populations and People Living with HIV

AIDS and Behavior

2023

Stigma in healthcare settings is a pernicious barrier to HIV prevention and treatment in contexts with strong HIV-related structural stigma. Previous work has documented substantial stigma towards key populations and people living with HIV (PLWH) among Malaysian doctors. The perspectives of Malaysian key populations and PLWH, however, remain understudied. In 2021, 34 Malaysian participants representing key populations and PLWH engaged in a photovoice study designed to qualitatively explore their experiences with and hopes for doctor interactions.

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Acceptability and feasibility of online, asynchronous photovoice with key populations and people living with HIV

AIDS and Behavior

2023

Photovoice is an action-oriented qualitative method involving photography and story-telling. Although photovoice yields a powerful form of data that can be leveraged for research, intervention, and advocacy, it has arguably been underutilized within HIV research. Online, asynchronous photovoice methods represent a promising alternative to traditional in-person methods, yet their acceptability and feasibility with key populations and people living with HIV (PLWH) have yet to be explored. The current study describes the methods and evaluation of an online, asynchronous photovoice project conducted with 34 members of key populations and PLWH in Malaysia in 2021.

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Impart: findings from a prison‐based model of HIV assisted partner notification in Indonesia

Journal of the International AIDS Society

2023

Introduction
Assisted partner notification (APN) safely and effectively increases partner awareness of HIV exposure, testing and case identification in community settings. Nonetheless, it has not been specifically developed or evaluated for use in prison settings where people with HIV often are diagnosed and may have difficulty contacting or otherwise notifying partners. We developed Impart, a prison‐based APN model, and evaluated its efficacy in Indonesia to increase partner notification and HIV testing.

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Accomplishments

Early Career Award, Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest, American Psychological Association

2020

Emerging Leader, Psychology and AIDS Distinguished Leadership Award, Committee on Psychology and AIDS, American Psychological Association

2019

Early-Stage Investigator Lecture, NIH Office of Disease Prevention

2019

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Education

University of Connecticut

PhD

Social Psychology

2011

University of Connecticut

MA

Social Psychology

2009

Pennsylvania State University

BA

Psychology

2006

Affiliations

  • American Psychological Association
  • Association for Psychological Science
  • Social Personality and Health Network
  • Society of Behavioral Medicine
  • Society for Personality and Social Psychology
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Languages

  • English

Event Appearances

Communicating about the monkeypox outbreak: Lessons from the social and behavioral sciences

(2022) Societal Experts Action Network of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine  Virtual

Stigma and Substance Use Disorders

(2022) Delaware Substance Abuse and Mental Health State Opioid Response and Recovery Conference  Wilmington, DE

HIV and Substance Use Stigma

(2022) Mental Health and Disparities Core Speaker Series, Center for HIV and Research in Mental Health, University of Miami  Virtual

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