Table III.

Focus Group Categories

Name	Definition
Felt stigma	Perception that someone was devaluing or treating them unfairly due to their pain
Dismissal	Perception that someone was minimizing or dismissing their pain
Faking or exaggerating	Perception that someone thought they are exaggerating or making up their pain
Mental health stigma	When someone blamed pain all on mental health problems or stress
Anticipated stigma	Belief that participants will be negatively judged in the future because of their pain
Concealability	When participants actively kept pain symptoms from other to avoid stigma
Internalized stigma	When participants adopt negative societal beliefs and stereotypes, and engage in self-blame of pain
Sources of stigma
Invisibility	When the lack of disease visibility or medical evidence contributed to disbelief of pain
Lack of pain education	Perception that stigma stems from a lack of knowledge about chronic pain from expected people (i.e., doctors and school nurses)
Not understanding	When someone did not understand when participants presented or discussed their pain
Controllability	Perception that participants were to be at fault or is blamed for their pain