ArticleJournal of occupational rehabilitation2021
Does it matter what your reasons are when deciding to disclose (or not disclose) a disability at work? The association of workers' approach and avoidance goals with perceived positive and negative workplace outcomes.
Article in Journal of occupational rehabilitation, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Impact of employment and income support interventions on the health of young adults with episodic disability: Findings from a systematic review.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2024Pooled it
- Potential of the Job Demands and Accommodation Planning Tool for Individuals Working With Mild Cognitive Impairment or Dementia.Dementia (London, England) · 2026Article
- Working with a Chronic Health Condition: Is Choosing Not to Disclose the Same as Hiding Information?Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Authorization to Disclose: How Occupational Physicians Interpret Confidentiality in Return-to-Work Negotiations.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Conceptualizing Stigma in the Injured Worker Literature: A Scoping Review.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Article
- The Job Demands and Accommodation Planning Tool (JDAPT): A Nine-Month Evaluation of Use, Changes in Self-efficacy, Presenteeism, and Absenteeism in Workers with Chronic and Episodic Disabilities.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Disclosure Decisions of Workers Living with a Chronic Health Condition Causing Disability at Work: Are Decisions to Disclose to Co-workers and Supervisors Different?Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Why are Disclosure Decisions so Difficult? Understanding Factors that Encourage and Discourage Workers with a Chronic Disabling Condition from Disclosing Health Information at Work.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Functional work disability from the perspectives of persons with systemic lupus erythematosus: a qualitative thematic analysis.Arthritis research & therapy · 2025Article
- Performing wellness, concealing pain: a gendered continuum of challenges for women with lupus in the workplace.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Article
- Physicians' Perspectives on HL7 Information Policy Sensitive Value Set: A Validation Study through Health Concept Categorization.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Article
- A Sensibility Assessment of the Job Demands and Accommodation Planning Tool (JDAPT): A Tool to Help Workers with an Episodic Disability Plan Workplace Support.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2023Article
- Anticipating the outcomes: how young adults with developmental disabilities and co-occurring mental health conditions make decisions about disclosure of their mental health conditions at work.Disability and rehabilitation · 2023Article
- Examining psychosocial factors associated with receiving workplace accommodations among people with disabilities.Work (Reading, Mass.) · 2023Article
- Dutch workers' attitudes towards having a coworker with mental health issues or illness: a latent class analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Expectations of Mental Illness Disclosure Outcomes in the Work Context: A Cross-Sectional Study Among Dutch Workers.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2022Article
- Unravelling the Complexities of Workplace Disclosure Among Persons with Non-Visible Disabilities and Illnesses: A Qualitative Meta-Ethnography.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2022Review
- Diversity and inclusion in the legal profession: disclosure of cancer and other health conditions by lawyers with disabilities and lawyers who identify as LGBTQ + .Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Deciding whether to disclose a disability to others at work is complex. Many chronic mental and physical health conditions are associated with episodic disability and include times of relative wellness punctuated by intermittent periods of activity limitations. This research draws on the disclosure processes model to examine approach and avoidance disclosure and non-disclosure goals and their association with perceived positive and negative workplace outcomes. Participants were 896 employed individuals (57.7% women) living with a chronic physical or mental health/cognitive condition. They were recruited from an existing national panel and completed an online, cross-sectional survey. Participants were asked about disclosure decisions, reasons for disclosure/non-disclosure, demographic, work context and perceived positive and negative disclosure decision outcomes (e.g., support, stress, lost opportunities). About half the sample (51.2%) had disclosed a disability to their supervisor. Decisions included both approach and avoidance goals. Approach goals (e.g., desire support, want to build trust, maintain the status quo at work) were significantly associated with perceived positive work outcomes regardless of whether a participant disclosed or did not disclose a disability at work, while avoidance goals (e.g., concerns about losing one's job, feeling forced to disclose because others notice a problem) were associated with perceived negative work outcomes. The findings highlight benefits and challenges that workers perceive arise when they choose to disclose or not disclose personal health information. By better understanding disclosure decisions, we can inform organizational health privacy and support gaps to help sustain the employment of people living with disabilities.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.