Measuring Self-Stigma Among Romanian Psychiatric Patients: Cultural Adaptation and Further Psychometric Insights for the Self-Stigma of Mental Illness Scale and the Paradox of Self-Stigma Scale.

Abstract

In the present study, we aimed to translate and validate two instruments designed to assess self-stigmatization: the Self-Stigma of Mental Illness Scale and the Paradox of Self-Stigma Scale, among Romanian psychiatric patients. Responses from 326 psychiatric patients (58% women) diagnosed with internalizing and externalizing disorders were collected to evaluate the instruments' structural validity, measurement invariance, reliability, convergent and criterion validity. Confirmatory factor analyses offered support for the intended structure of both instruments and the pattern of associations with the other investigated variables further sustained their validity. Reliability was optimal, as revealed by excellent internal consistency estimates. For the first time, the invariance of these instruments was tested based on gender and psychiatric diagnosis. Our results suggest that both instruments can be confidently used by Romanian specialists, providing an effective toolkit for measuring self-stigmatization related to mental health.