Developing and testing the validity and reliability of the stigma scale for women with psychiatric disorders in the perinatal period

AIM: Developing and testing the validity and reliability of the stigma scale for women with psychiatric disorders in the perinatal period. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The research, which is of a methodological type, was carried out on patients, their relatives and hospital staff who applied to different clinics in Sakarya EAH between 01.05.2022 and 01.11.2022. 200 people (female n=134, male n=66) between the ages of 18-65 participated in the study. "Sociodemographic data form", "Perinatal Mental Illness Stigma Scale (PMISS)", "Social distance scale" and "Beliefs towards mental illness scale" were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22 and AMOS 26 program. Validity and reliability analysis of PRHRÖ; Cronbach's alpha coefficient was measured using item-total score correlation, factor analysis, and test-retest method. RESULTS: The Content Validity Index of the scale items was found to be between 0.80-1. In the internal consistency analysis of the scale; Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the general scale was 0.94, "Discrimination and Prejudice" sub-dimension was 0.93, and "Labelıng" sub-dimension was 0.88. It was determined that item-total score correlations varied between 0.410 and 0.799. P<0.05 in Barlett's test, KMO was calculated as 0.94, these values show that factor analysis can be applied to the scale. According to the EFA result, the scale has a 2-factor structure, explaining 60% of the total variance. The Guttman Split-Half coefficient of the scale was 0.882 and the Spearman-Brown coefficient was 0.883. The scale was reapplied to 30 participants with an interval of three weeks. The correlation coefficient between measurements was 0.91, indicating that the scale satisfies the principle of invariance over time. CONCLUSION: The Perinatal Mental Illness Stigma Scale (PRHRS) is a reliable measurement tool that can be used to investigate perinatal stigma in the Turkish population. Keywords: Perinatal stigma, scale development, stigma, validity and reliability.