Self-Stigma of Mental and Physical Health

Self-Stigma of Mental and Physical Health: Developing and Validation of a Universal Self-Stigma Scale (USSS)

People with mental disorders often suffer from self-stigmatization. Self-stigma is associated with several negative outcomes such as low quality of life, lower rates of help-seeking as well as poorer treatment adherence. However, a lot of questionnaires only focus on specific mental disorders. There is no valid measurement which can be used for all kinds of mental disorders.

Furthermore, much less is known about self-stigma in people with organic diseases. Only little attention has been given to those who may experience self-stigma because of their physical condition. A main reason for this may be the lack of a valid measurement of self-stigma among people with physical health issues.

Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop and validate a self-report scale which is capable to do both - measuring self-stigma among people with all mental disorders and among people with physical health issues.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Mental Disorder; Organic Disease

Detailed Description

Items are derived from the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) and the Behaviors from Intergroup Affect and Stereotypes (BIAS) Map. Psychometric evaluation includes testing the reliability (intern consistency, test-retest reliability) and validity (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, construct validity incl. convergent and discriminant validity, criterion-related validity).

Participants take part in an online survey. They answer general questions about their mental and physical health condition and complete measurements of quality of life, mental health, depression, public stigma, expected stigma, self-stigma, intention to seek help and actual help seeking (behavior).

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 823

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Germany
  • Marburg, Germany, 35032
    • Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Random sample including students, outpatients, inpatients

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Minimum Age: 18
• Fluent in German Language

Exclusion Criteria:

• Acute psychosis
• Suicidal ideation

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

4

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
healthy; Healthy participants
mentally ill; Participants with mental disorders
physically ill; Participants with organic disease
mentally and physically ill; Participants with mental disorders and organic disease

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Development of the Universal Self-Stigma Scale (USSS)	Questionnaire is based on the Stereotype Content Model (Fiske et al., 2002) and BIAS-Map (Cuddy et al., 2007) and includes three components: stereotype (warmth, competence [lower scores indicate higher self-stigma]), prejudice (emotions, e.g. contempt, pity, anger, shame [higher scores indicate higher self-stigma]), discrimination (active/passive self-harm [higher scores indicate higher self-stigma]). Each item is rated on a 7-point Likert scale. Item selection via qualitative and statistical methods, e.g. item difficulty index, item discrimination index, exploratory factor analysis (EFA).	Baseline
Universal Self-Stigma Scale (USSS): Validity	Validation process includes confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the statistical model fit with goodness of fit indices. Convergent validity is tested with another measurement for self-stigma (ISMI) using Pearson correlations [higher correlations indicate better convergent validity]. Discriminant validity is tested with Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and public stigma [lower correlations indicate better discriminant validity], criterion validity with actual help seeking behavior and health related quality of life (12-Item Short-Form Health Survey, SF-12) using Pearson correlations as well [higher correlations indicate better criterion validity].	Baseline
Universal Self-Stigma Scale (USSS): Internal consistency	Internal consistency is tested with Cronbach's Alpha (0-1; higher scores indicate better internal consistency)	Baseline
Change on Universal Self-Stigma Scale (USSS): Test-Retest Reliability	Test-Retest Reliability (Pearson Correlation, 0-1; higher scores indicate better reliability)	Baseline and 4 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Intention to Seek Help	Questionaire (e.g. Yu et al., 2015) to describe the intention to seek help because of severe psychological or mental health problems as well as physical health problems (e.g. "If you had severe mental health problems, would you seek help from professional sources for them?", scores from 1 [definitely yes] to 4 [definitely no]; lower scores indicate higher intentions to seek help). Reasons for not seeking help because of psychological health problems (e.g. "I want to solve problems by myself.") are assessed by binary items (yes, no).	Baseline
Actual Help Seeking Behavior	8 Items to assess actual help seeking behavior. It is asked if participants have ever sought services from any professional and if they have been in therapy or received medical treatment because of psychological or physical health problems. As well as if they are using any of these services currently. Items are binary (yes, no).	Baseline and 4 weeks
12-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12)	Self-report measure of health related quality of life; norm-based scores (M=50, SD=10) for Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Component Summary (MCS), higher score indicates better health state	Baseline
Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)	Self-report inventory used to screen for mental health disorders (depression, anxiety, alcohol, eating, somatoform disorders), including severity scores for depressive symptoms (0-29), anxiety symptoms (0-21) and somatic symptoms (0-30), where higher scores indicate more serve symptoms	Baseline
Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II)	Self-report measure of depressed mood; higher total scores indicate more servere symptoms; total score (0-63); cut-offs for interpretation 0-13 (minimal depression), 14-19 (mild depression), 20-28 (moderate depression), 29-63 (severe depression)	Baseline
Public Stigma	Measuring public stigma including stereotype (cognition - warmth, competence), prejudice (emotions - pity, envy, contempt, admiration) and discrimination (behavior - active/passive harm) with 19 items based on Stereotype Content Model (Fiske et al., 2002) and BIAS Map (Cuddy et al., 2007) toward people with mental or physical health problems. (e.g. "How often do you think people in general tend to feel the following emotions toward people with a mental disorder? [pity, contempt, envy, admiration]")	Baseline
Expected Stigma	Expectation to be stigmatized because of one's own mental and physical health condition. (e.g. "Do you expect that other people think badly of you because of your health condition?")	Baseline and 4 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Philipps University Marburg Medical Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 4, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 30, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): July 30, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 6, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 1, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): June 4, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 16, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 14, 2021
• Last Verified: September 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Mental Health; Questionnaire; Physical Health; Self-Stigma
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2019-53k

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No