Cross-Cultural Measurement Invariance of Scales Assessing Stigma and Attitude to Seeking Professional Psychological Help

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in research on stigma and attitude toward psychotherapy, and these variables are expected to show cross-cultural variations. The Stigma Scale for Receiving Psychological Help (SSRPH), the Self-Stigma of Seeking Help (SSOSH) and the Inventory of Attitudes to Seeking Mental Health Services (IASMHS) are widely used and this study examined their measurement invariance as this is a prerequisite for use in cross-cultural studies. Data were collected online from groups of Chinese students in China ( n = 413) and German students in Germany ( n = 416). Confirmatory factor analyses in single samples and measurement invariance testing in a multi-group framework were conducted to test the cross-group equivalence. Findings demonstrate that the SSRPH and the modified model of IASMHS had partial scalar measurement invariance, but the SSOSH showed cultural variance in factor structure. Comparisons of latent means indicated no differences between the two groups with respect to the social stigma attached to professional psychological help, but a higher psychological openness of Chinese students toward help-seeking. Findings are discussed from intercultural and methodological perspectives. In the future, intercultural cooperation should be promoted in order to develop a cross-culturally valid concept of stigma against psychological help that could be used as the basis for intercultural comparison and developing interventions to reduce stigma.

Are comparisons of mental disorders between Chinese and German students possible? An examination of measurement invariance for the PHQ-15, PHQ-9 and GAD-7

“…The online data used in the present study are from a dataset collected in a project for intercultural comparison of willingness to seek psychological help [43]. The data were collected in Germany and China in August 2016 and the collection lasted for 6 months.…”

“…The results of the comparison between the underlying structure and the invariant items of the scales remained unchanged. Therefore, we presented the results without conducting propensity score matching, owing to the large sample size" [43].…”

Help-seeking preferences among Chinese college students exposed to a natural disaster: a person-centered approach

“…Respondents rate the degree they agree or disagree with each item using a 5-point Likert-scale format from 1 (strongly disagree) to 3 (agree and disagree equally) to 5 (strongly agree). Cronbach’s alpha of the Chinese-version scale was 0.71 in previous study (Zhou et al, 2019 ). The scale reliability in the current study was good (Cronbach’s α = 0.85).…”

“…Responses on this scale were rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 3 (agree and disagree equally) to 5 (strongly agree). The Chinese version of this scale demonstrated good reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.82) (Zhou, Lemmer, Xu, & Rief, 2019 ). The Cronbach’s α in the current study was 0.80.…”

Mental health stigma and professional help-seeking attitudes a comparison between Cuba and Germany

“…The authors suppose a onefactor structure for the questionnaire which was mainly confirmed cross culturally [124] or at least partly replicated [117]. Cross cultural invariance was proofed for a German sample [125] while it is still lacking for Latin American samples. Thus, only the sum score was used for analyses.…”