The Stigma Scale: development of as tandardised The Stigma Scale: development of a standardised measure of the stigma of mental illness measure of the stigma of mental illness

Background Thereisconcernaboutthestigmaofmentalillness,butitisdifficulttomeasure stigmaconsistently.Aims Todevelopa standardisedTo developa standardisedinstrumenttomeasurethestigmaofmentalillness.Method Weusedqualitativedatafrominterviewswithmentalhealthserviceusersto developapilotscalewith 42userstodevelopapilotscalewith 42items.Werecruited193serviceusersinordertostandardisethescale.Ofthese,93wereaskedtocompletethequestionnairetwice,2weeksapart,ofwhom60(65%)didso.Itemswithatest^retestreliabilitykappacoefficientof 0.4 orgreaterwereretainedandsubjectedtocommonfactoranalysis.Results Thefinal 28-itemstigmascaleThefinal 28-itemstigma scalehasathree-factorstructure:thefirstconcernsdiscrimination,thesecondconcernsdiscrimination, theseconddisclosureandthethirdpotentialpositiveaspectsofmentalillness.Stigmascalescoreswerenegativelycorrelatedwithglobalself-esteem.Conclusions Thisself-reportquestionnaire,whichcanbecompletedin5^10min, mayhelpusunderstandmore5^10 min, mayhelpusunderstandmoreabouttheroleofstigmaofpsychiatricillnessinresearchandclinicalsettings.Declarationof interest None.