Social stigma against individuals with COVID-19: scale development and validation

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Psychometrics
• Sociology

Background:

• Social stigma surrounding COVID-19 hinders disease prevention efforts.
• Understanding and quantifying this stigma is crucial for effective public health interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a scale measuring social stigma against individuals with COVID-19.
• To assess the psychometric properties of the developed stigma scale.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study with 225 participants in Bandung Regency, Indonesia.
• Scale development based on social stigma dimensions, followed by psychometric evaluation.
• Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to validate the scale's structure.

Main Results:

• The 12-item scale demonstrated high content validity (CVI=1.0) and reliability (Cronbach's alpha=0.875).
• Factor analysis identified four key dimensions of stigma: ignorance/labeling, stereotype, separation, and discrimination.
• Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a good fit of the four-factor model.

Conclusions:

• The developed social stigma scale is valid and reliable for assessing attitudes toward COVID-19.
• This scale can be utilized by health practitioners to predict stigma and enhance COVID-19 prevention and care strategies.