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Being made to feel different, lesser or unwanted can be a common experience for many minority groups. When people are excluded or denied full social acceptance because they are perceived as having a "lesser" status or value, they may internalize that stigma.

Researchers at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) investigated this internalization, known as self-stigma, among university students. They found that, over time, students with higher levels of mindfulness had lower self-stigma and fewer depressive symptoms.

The study involved 194 university students from the Chinese mainland who resided in Hong Kong. In the 2023–24 academic year, such students numbered more than 17,900, making up more than 17% of the total student population. "These students, whose minority status is not immediately noticeable to others at first glance, may experience invisible stigma," says Dr. Rebecca Cheung, the corresponding author from XJTLU's Academy of Future Education.

Cultural and physical proximity to the host population does not shield minority students from forms of stigma such as persistent stereotyping. Internalized stigma, or self-stigma, is characterized by deeply held negative self-perceptions, including beliefs of personal inadequacy and social failure, which have been consistently linked to deteriorating mental health over time.

Over nine to 10 months, the researchers invited students to complete a pen-and-paper survey three times, with four months between each round. "A lot of existing studies are cross-sectional, meaning they only collect data at one time point," Cheung says.

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