RESUMO
The objective of this study was to design and assess measurement instruments that accurately measure the levels of stigma among individuals with a primarily collectivist culture. A cross-sectional study was conducted among middle school students and their parents or guardians in a rural area of China. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to examine and determine the latent factors of the sub-scales of stigma respectively, among students and their parents. Factor analyses identified three sub-scales: HIV public stigma (seven items), drug-use public stigma (nine items), and fear of HIV infection (seven items). There were no items with cross-loading onto multiple factors, supporting the distinctness of the constructs that these scales were meant to measure. Goodness of fit indices indicated that a three-factor solution fit, the data at an acceptable level in the student sample (χ(2) /degree ratio=1.98, comparative fit index [CFI]=0.92, root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA]=0.055, standardized root mean square residual [SRMR]=0.057) and in the parent sample (χ(2)/degree ratio=1.95, CFI=0.91, RMSEA=0.06, SRMR=0.059). Reliability of the three scales was excellent (Cronbach's alpha: 0.78-0.92 for students; 0.80-0.94 for parents or guardians) and stable across split samples and for the data as a whole. The scales are brief and suitable for use in developing countries where the collectivist culture prevails.
