[Validity and Reliability of the Parents Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale]

The purpose of this study is to investigate the validity and reliability of PISMI-TR, the Parents Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness scale, which had been previously adapted to the Turkish.

The data of this methodological study were acquired between June 2017 and August 2018 from the parents of 281 individuals who were diagnosed with a mental disorder and followed up at the adult psychiatry polyclinics of a university hospital, by means of an Information Form, the PISMI-TR scale and the Beliefs toward Mental Illness (BMI) scale. SPSS 22.0 and LISREL 8.89 were used for data analysis. The content and the construct validities were determined for the scale validity and the internal consistency values were calculated for the reliability.

The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.87 for the total score of the scale, and it varied in the 0.69-0.81 range for the subscale scores. The confirmatory factor analysis validated a 5-factor structure for the PISMI-TR scale tested on the participants of this study; and the adaptive ad statistical values were at an acceptable level. The factor loading was found to range between 0.34 and 0.74.

The validity and reliability analyses carried out indicated that the PISMI-TR scale is both valid and reliable. The scale can be used to evaluate the internalized stigma in parents, who play an important role in adherence to treatment of the mentally ill offspring.