Abstract
Developing psychometric instruments for understanding childhood mental illness stigma is challenging due to the complexity of the stigma concept. The objective of the present study was to validate a novel measure of childhood mental illness stigma from the perceiver´s perspective using modern psychometric techniques and to critically reflect on the insights generated by the results. A convenience sample of 290 Brazilian elementary schoolteachers was investigated for the presence of personal stigma (PS) and perceived public stigma (PPS). The items of each stigma type were analyzed using Item Response Theory. A 20-item Likert instrument was developed and validated allowing comparison of levels of PS and PPS. Although all items showed good potential for discriminating individuals with different levels of stigma, the items dangerousness, fear and intellectual disability exhibited greatest discriminative power. The difference in an individual’s perceived behavior/attitude of others compared to their own was observed and described as the distance between PS and PPS. We report important insights into the novel measure of childhood mental illness stigma from the stigmatizer´s perspective which can help plan topics to be addressed and new approach strategies for anti-stigma campaigns in child mental health.
Highlights
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New assessment measure of the stigma from the stigmatizer´s perspective was proposed.
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The most relevant items were violence, incompetence and non-recovery.
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Different responses were observed in first or third person.
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Personal stigma and perceived public stigma were quantified.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Office of Education of Americana (São Paulo, Brazil) and the teachers participating in this study. The authors also extend their thanks to the Espaço da Escrita – Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa - UNICAMP - for the language services provided
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This work was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brazil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001
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All procedures performed in the study which involved human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The ethics approval was obtained from the board of the Research Ethics Committee of the School of Medical Sciences of University of Campinas (UNICAMP) (process number: CAAE 51337515.8.0000.5404).
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Biagi, N.B., Ferreira, E.V. & Celeri, E.H.R.V. Insights into a Novel Measure of Childhood Mental Illness Stigma from the Stigmatizer′s Perspective. J Child Fam Stud 32, 2495–2512 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-023-02577-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-023-02577-1