Chia-Hui Yu
Chung Shan Medical University, Taiwan
Title: Development and psychometric testing of the Chinese HIV Stigma Scale (CHSS)
Biography
Biography: Chia-Hui Yu
Abstract
Background: Literature shows that HIV infected patients often experience physical, mental and spiritual impact resulting from the stigma associated with the illness. However, in Taiwan, there is no appropriate instrument that assess the impact of HIV/AIDS stigma on patients. Purpose: To develop a Chinese version of HIV Stigma Scale and to establish reliability and validity of the instrument. Method: In this cross-sectional design, a purposive sample of 331 HIV infected individuals were recruited to test the reliability of the instrument. There are four phases of this study: translation and back translation for the development of the Chinese HIV Stigma Scale, establishment of construct validity and convergent validity, and verification of reliability. Results: Four factors and 30 items emerged from explorative factor analysis: personalized stigma, negative self-image, concern with public attitudes, and disclosure concerns. The cumulative explained variance are 65.03%. The results of confirmatory factor analysis revealed four factors and 19 items that are consistent with the conceptual framework of stigmatization (GFI = .92, AGFI = .89, RMSEA = .054). In addition, there is a significant positive correlation between the Chinese HSS instrument and the depression instrument Center of Epidemiological Study-Depression; (CES-D) (r = .53; p< .01). There is a good convergent validity. The Cronbach’s α for the internal consistency is .92. Conclusion/application: The reliability and validity of the Chinese HIV Stigma Scale (CHSS) has been established in this study. The CHSS may be used to assess HIV stigma in practice, and to understand the cognitive, emotional, behavioral and social impact of stigma on HIV patients.