Further psychometric evaluation of the self-stigma scale-short: measurement invariance across mental illness and gender

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 10; no. 2; p. e0117592
• Main Authors: Wu, Tsung-Hsien, Chang, Chih-Cheng, Chen, Chih-Yin, Wang, Jung-Der, Lin, Chung-Ying
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 06.02.2015; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis; Consent; Cross-Sectional Studies; Discrimination; Empowerment; Female; Gender; Humans; Illnesses; Invariance; Male; Males; Measurement; Medicine; Mental depression; Mental disorders; Mental Disorders - epidemiology; Mental Disorders - psychology; Mentally ill persons; Middle Aged; Patients; Pharmacy; Psychiatry; Psychologists; Psychometrics; Public health; Quantitative psychology; Sampling methods; Schizophrenia; Sex Characteristics; Sigma factor; Stigma; Taiwan - epidemiology; Validity; Taiwan; Hong Kong; Europe
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117592

This study cross-validated the factor structure of the Self-Stigma Scale-Short (SSS-S) in a cohort of patients with mental illness in southern Taiwan. The measurement invariance of the SSS-S factor structure across mental illness and gender was also examined. The sample consisted of 161 patients with schizophrenia (51.6% males; mean age ± SD = 40.53 ± 10.38 years) and 189 patients with other mental illnesses (34.9% males; mean age = 46.52 ± 11.29 years). The internal reliability (total score: α = 0.948) and concurrent validity (r = 0.335 to 0.457 with Depression and Somatic Symptoms Scale; r = -0.447 to -0.556 with WHOQOL-BREF) of the SSS-S were both satisfactory, and the results verified that the factor structure in our Taiwan sample (RMSEA = 0.0796, CFA = 0.992) was the same as that of the Hong Kong population. In addition, the results supported the measurement invariance of the SSS-S across mental illness (ΔRMSEAs = -0.0082 to -0.0037, ΔCFAs = 0.000) and gender (ΔRMSEAs = -0.0054 to -0.0008, ΔCFAs = -0.001 to 0.000). Future studies can use the SSS-S to compare self-stigma between genders and between patients with different kinds of mental illnesses.