"Data Trends" reports present summaries of research on mental health services for children and adolescents and their families. The article summarized in this "Data Trends" reviews theory and research on stigma and mental health with a focus on the stigmatization of mental illness in the family when either a child or a parent has a mental illness. Core concepts and dimensions of stigma are discussed together with selected evidence on the impact of stigma and issues for future research and stigma reduction. The author proposes a number of ways to advance research in the field. These include more sophisticated measures that capture the interactional dimensions of the construct of stigma and the perspectives of both perceivers and recipients, including attitudes that are implicit. In addition, there is a need for more research on children using developmentally appropriate and specific measures, and prospective longitudinal research that can incorporate dynamic models of experiences of and responses to mental illness, in addition to possible mediating factors, outcomes, and social trends over time. The author notes that strategies to reduce stigma "will need to operate at multiple, interacting levels". Recommendations include funding changes, such as insurance parity, that reduce discrimination and enable access to needed services, prevention strategies that integrate mental health with other health care, more balanced information and media coverage of mental health, efforts to promote community integration, increased family education and family support, and improved mental health services. [This "Data Trends" presents a summary of: Hinshaw, S. P. (2005). The stigmatization of mental illness in children and parents: developmental issues, family concerns and research needs. "Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry," 46, 7, 714-734.]