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

Abstract

This self-report questionnaire, which can be completed in 5-10 min, may help us understand more about the role of stigma of psychiatric illness in research and clinical settings.

Stigma resistance is positively associated with psychiatric and psychosocial outcomes: A meta-analysis

“…Stigma also has the potential to affect how people view or treat themselves. Self-stigma involves moving beyond awareness of public stigma to agreeing with it and applying it to oneself (Corrigan and O'Shaughnessy, 2007;Watson et al, 2007). When public stigma is internalized, it can lead to decreased hope, quality of life, self-esteem, and greater symptom severity, including depression (Hasson-Ohayon et al, 2014;Lipsey and Wilson, 2001;Staring et al, 2013), as well as reduced help-seeking (Clement et al, 2015).…”

“…Thoits (2011) further theorized that particular factors may be key to helping individuals resist stigma more effectively, such as having greater resources, experincing positive outcomes from resisting stigma previously, posessing multuiple roleidentities outside of being a person with a mental illness, or experiences with peers who are resisting stigma. Although originally examined as part of larger self-stigma measures (King et al, 2007;Rister et al, 2003), stigma resitance has since been discussed theoretically (Thotis, 2011) and psychometrically (Sibitz et al, 2011) as distinct from self-stigma. While recent work has emphasized the need to further study stigma resitance, it remains relatively under-studied, particularly in comparison to self-stigma (Nabors et al, 2014;Sititz et al, 2011;Thoits, 2011).…”

“…Although assessed as part of internalized stigma, a recent factor analysis revealed the stigma resistance items form a unique factor from the rest of the ISMIS items (Sibitz et al, 2011). In addition to the ISMIS, a less widely used assessment that taps a construct highly related to stigma resistance is the "Positive Aspects" subscale of the Stigma Scale (King et al, 2007). This subscale also consists of 5 items that assess a positive illness identity (e.g., "Having had a mental health problem has made me a more understanding person," or "Having had mental health problems has made me a stronger person").…”

“…More recent studies have examined the item loadings of the ISMIS and conclude that the Stigma Resistance items comprise a distinct factor from the remainder of the ISMIS, and recent studies have also demonstrated adequate reliability of this sub-scale in samples with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (Campellone et al, 2014;Nabors et al, 2014). Next, while the Positive Aspects subscale scores of the Stigma Scale have shown adequate reliability (King et al, 2007), it remains infrequently used. This may be, in part, due to the less frequent use of the Stigma Scale.…”

“…Despite the limitations of existing measures, both measures have demonstrated good construct validity in the validation work and subsequent studies. For example, in the validation study for the ISMIS, the Stigma Resistance sub-scale was positively associated with self-esteem and recovery and negatively associated with self-stigma and depressive symptoms; similarly, in the Stigma Scale validation, the Positive Aspects subscale was negatively related to self-stigma and positively related to self-esteem (Stuart, 2004;King et al, 2007).…”