Reducing Self-Stigma Among Individuals with History of Childhood Maltreatment: a Cross-Cultural Lens

Individuals who report experiencing any kind of abuse during childhood report shame and self-blame, often leading to self-stigma and a reluctance to reveal their experiences and seek help. Such stigma may aggravate the mental health consequences of child maltreatment (CM).

The investigators hypothesize that:

1. The brief video-based intervention will have the immediate and repeated effect of reducing self-stigma among CM survivors compared with the control condition.
2. The brief video-based intervention will increase seeking treatment compared with the control condition.
3. The brief video-based intervention will show similar effects in reducing self-stigma across multiple countries.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Child Abuse; Stigma, Social; Help-Seeking Behavior; Child Neglect
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Video

Detailed Description

Prior research suggests that social contact-based interventions are the most efficient way of reducing stigma. This study aims to address self-stigma and empower individuals who self-reported experiencing any kind of abuse during childhood and increase their openness to seeking help, if needed.

Four hundred participants with self-reported experience of any kind of childhood abuse will be recruited to participate in a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) testing the efficacy of the intervention. Participants will be randomized into one of two arms: 1) A 2-minute video intervention in which a CM survivor (presented by an actor) shares their personal CM experience and describes how they were able to overcome feelings of shame and self-blame to seek mental health care; or 2) A 2-minute control video using the same actor, but without a personal narrative of CM experience. Both videos will be preceded by and immediately followed by questionnaires assessing self-stigma and openness to seeking treatment. An additional assessment of emotional engagement will be added immediately following intervention delivery. Following the intervention, there will be a 30- day follow-up to examine potential long-term effects.

The results will be analyzed alongside results from parallel protocols being conducted by partner sites in other countries (Switzerland, Sweden, Japan, Peru, India, Australia, Turkey, South Africa, and Israel). Each site will conduct the study under their own university's purview and with their own protocol, and only deidentified data will be shared for analysis.

All study procedures will be conducted remotely via CloudReseach and Mechanical Turk, which is a crowdsourcing platform. The study survey will be hosted by Qualtrics.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 964
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New York
    • New York, New York, United States, 10032
      • New York State Psychiatric Institute

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 18-80
• US resident
• Individuals who endorse yes to one of the following items: physical aggression in family or household, emotional or verbal abuse in family or household, sexual abuse or inappropriate sexual experiences, negligence - physical or emotional, mental illness or substance abuse at home, incarceration of family member
• Fluent in English and able to give informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

- N/A

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Video with Childhood Maltreatment-Related Content; Participants will view a video of an actor describing the story of an individual who experienced childhood maltreatment and how they overcame its effects on their life.	Behavioral: Video; A short video aimed at reducing self-stigma among individuals with a history of childhood maltreatment and increasing their help seeking intentions (if needed).
No Intervention: Control Video; Participants in this arm will view a same-length video with the same actor, but without a personal narrative of CM experience.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Self-Stigma Questionnaire - Post-Intervention	Change in stigma items from baseline - higher score indicates higher stigma (range of 15 to 60)	Immediately post-intervention
Self-Stigma Questionnaire - Follow-Up	Change in stigma items from baseline - higher score indicates higher stigma (range of 15 to 60)	30 days post-intervention
Help Seeking Intentions - Post-Intervention	Change in treatment-seeking intentions from baseline - higher score indicates higher help-seeking intentions (range of 3 to 12)	Immediately post-intervention
Help Seeking Intentions - Follow-Up	Change in treatment-seeking intentions from baseline - higher score indicates higher help-seeking intentions (range of 3 to 12)	30 days post-intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc.
• Collaborators: Columbia University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Yuval Neria, PhD, NYSPI and Columbia University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 1, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 1, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): April 1, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 28, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 28, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): December 6, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 25, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 11, 2025
• Last Verified: February 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 8453a

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No