Turkish Adaptation of the Perceived Stigma Scale After Covid-19

Abstract

Social disapproval and devaluation of an individual or a group, called stigmatization, has become even more common with COVID-19, includes discriminatory and hostile attitudes towards the person/persons or place who have been diagnosed with the disease. This social discrimination may contribute to delay in diagnosis and treatment. To prevent this, stigmatization process can be assessed through valid assessment instruments. The objective of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of COVID-19 Infection Stigma Scale (CISS) for measuring the social stigma among patients with COVID-19 in the Turkish sample. The participants are 364 male and 612 female aged between 18-70 who were diagnosed with COVID-19. The data obtained from the COVID-19 Infection Stigma Scale, Stigmatization Scale, Coronovirus Anxiety Scale and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale were analyzed by using Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Correlation Analysis and Discriminant Analysis for validation. The results revealed that, the adapted Perceived Stigma Scale is reliable and valid measurement instrument in Turkish sample.