Development and validation of a standardised measure of the self-stigma for early psychosis patients

Abstract

Objective: To develop and validate a standardized self-stigma scale to capture the self-stigma level of early psychosis patients with lack of insight of their own mental condition. This bridges the research gap for existing scales measuring self-stigma in early psychosis patients. Method: We used qualitative data from focus groups and individual interviews with early psychosis patients to develop a pilot scale with15 concern issues and 48 items. We recruited 40 early psychosis patients in order to validate the scale. Of these, 15 were invited to complete the questionnaire twice within two to three weeks’ time for measuring the test-retest reliability for the scale. Results: The final self-stigma scale with 15concern issues and 32 items was produced. The self-stigma scale scores were positively correlated with depression, medication side-effects, positive and negative symptoms, insight, social withdrawal, perceived devaluation and discrimination, as well as experienced stigma. While the self-stigma scores were negatively correlated with social functioning and self-disclosure. However, their correlation with the self-stigma scale all served as discriminant validity. Discussion: The self-report questionnaire, which could be completed within ten to fifteen minutes, might help us understand more about the role of self-stigma in early psychosis patients in both research and clinical settings, also, its future applications were discussed.