Abstract
Purpose: The psychiatric stigma greatly affects symptom manifestation and illness behaviors of Chinese patients. However, there is still lacking a self-report scale that may be helpful for empirical research. Methods: Through literature review and case interviews, the present study aimed to embrace the Chinese characteristics into assessment tool and developed a 25-item Perceived Psychiatric Stigma Scale. Data of 255 psychiatric outpatients and 34 inpatients were used to establish reliability and validity of the scale. Results: The Cronbach's α was .94 and test-retest reliability with 1-week interval was. 90. Moreover, factor analysis yielded three factors, i.e., fear of social ostracism, concerns over marital preclusion, and self-deprecation. The averaged scale score was higher in the outpatients with severe psychiatric illnesses than those with mild psychiatric illnesses, and the perceived stigma of inpatients could predict low self-esteem assessed 1 week later. The 12-item short version of the scale formed based on factor loadings was also noted to have satisfactory reliability and validity. Conclusions: To sum up, this scale and its short version are applicable to assess the perceived psychiatric stigma in Chinese societies for both clinical service and psychopathological research.
Translated title of the contribution | Psychometric Properties of the Perceived Psychiatric Stigma Scale and Its Short Version |
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Original language | Chinese (Traditional) |
Pages (from-to) | 273-290 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Chinese Journal of Mental Health |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2008 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- perceived psychiatric stigma scale
- mental disease
- illness behavior
- stigma