Mazur publishes on identity, disclosure, and parenting youth with mental illness

McKEESPORT, Pa. — Elizabeth Mazur, professor of psychology at Penn State Greater Allegheny, has published two new scholarly works examining disability in the family and how young adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) navigate disclosure in social relationships.

Mazur’s research article appears in the January 2026 issue of New Ideas in Psychology and explores how young adults with ADHD decide whether to disclose or conceal their diagnosis in social relationships. The study analyzes how perceptions of stigma and disability identity shape those decisions and was featured in the journal’s special issue, “Engendering Embodiment in Disability and Neurodiversity.”

“For this study, I wanted to study emerging adults with a disability that might not be immediately apparent,” Mazur said, motivated by her previous research on online dating among young adults with disabilities, which highlighted disclosure as a key concern.

Her research found that emerging adults with ADHD vary widely in how they disclose their diagnosis.

“Some emerging adults with ADHD learn to ‘read the room,’ while others disclose their diagnoses immediately because they want to always be honest or don’t think they can hide their symptoms.” Mazur said. She explained that some share it immediately, including on dating profiles, as a way to be honest or screen potential partners, while others are cautious, waiting until they trust someone or allowing relationships to develop first.

Participants said stigma influenced their disclosure decisions. One 23-year-old man avoided sharing his diagnosis because he didn’t want to appear weaker than peers, while a 26-year-old woman said she usually withheld disclosure at school or work, fearing others would view her as less capable or intelligent.

Only 14% of participants reported rarely or never disclosing their ADHD, a figure comparable to disclosure rates reported in a 2021 study of autistic adults in the workplace. Participants who always or usually disclosed their ADHD were more likely to view the diagnosis as a core part of their identity. By contrast, those who rarely or never disclosed cited concerns about stigma and fear of negative perceptions, concerns also shared by participants who disclosed only some of the time.

The project was supported by funding from Penn State Greater Allegheny, with data coding assistance from then-undergraduate students Ethan Galley and Bobur Rakhmatullaev.

What’s So Hard About Parenting Children with Mental Illness?

Mazur also authored a chapter titled “What’s So Hard About Parenting Children with Mental Illness?” in Wisdom for Parents: Key Ideas from Parent Educators, a trade publication edited by Elizabeth A. Ramsey and published by the National Council on Family Relations.

In the chapter, Mazur draws on research, professional experience and practical insight to examine challenges faced by parents raising children with mental illness. The book includes contributions from educators, professors, counselors and clergy, offering an interdisciplinary perspective for both academic and parent audiences.

Mazur’s interest in writing about parenting children with mental illness grew out of both her professional work and personal experience. From 2016 to 2019, she wrote the Psychology Today blog De-stressing Disability.

“The recent chapter was a natural extension from some of those essays that I wrote in response to my own parenting experiences and my academic background. It was also strongly influenced by a 2018 research paper that I co-authored with a student, Camille Mickle,” she explained. “I’m a developmental psychologist and I’ve always been interested in and researched the topics of stress and coping, disability, and family relationships. This topic pretty much tackles all three.”

The chapter also aims to address common misunderstandings parents face when raising children with mental illness.

Mazur believes that many parents understand intellectually that they have little control over their child’s symptoms, yet still feel responsible for managing or fixing them. “Parents often acknowledge that while they know rationally that they have little to no actual control over their children’s symptoms or condition, they still feel they should,” she said. “This feeling is often reinforced by their relatives and friends, who may tell them that a child with mental illness ‘just’ needs firm discipline, maybe a swat on the bottom, or that the parents must have contributed to their children’s challenges in some way. Parents of children with mental illness and other disabilities need to give themselves the benefit of the doubt and recognize that they are dealing with chronic emotionally distressing situations.”

She hopes her work helps people see disability as a form of diversity rather than a deficit. While acknowledging the real stressors that people with disabilities face, Mazur believes that many challenges are environmental or interpersonal, and therefore changeable. “Society needs to stop trying to fit square pegs into round holes. Instead, enlarge the hole."