The Validity and the Reliability of Turkish Version of the Self-Stigma of Depression Scale

Objective: In this study, we aimed to the Self-Stigma of Depression Scale (SSDS), which evaluates self-stigmatization that can prevent both treatment consultation and compliance by depressed patients run Turkish adaptation, validity and reliability study of. Method: The study included a total of 173 subjects consisting of 131 outpatients of the Psychiatry Polyclinic with past or recent major depression disorder (MDD) diagnosis and 42 non-depressed outpatients consulting the Geriatrics Polyclinics for other medical complaints. Each participant was evaluated with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I), the Standardized Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Turkish Self-Stigma of Depression Scale (SSDS-TR) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The MDD patients were further evaluated with the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness (ISMI) scale. Test-retest reliability of the SSDS-TR was assessed with 27 participants 8-12 weeks after the first test. All analyses were carried out using the IBM-SPSS Statistics version 25 and the IBM SPSS AMOS version 25. Results: In the exploratory factor analysis, the factor structure of SSDS TR differed from the original form. The structural validity of the 4-factor model formed after excluding one problematic item was tested by confirmatory factor analysis and proven to meet the goodness of fit criteria. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the SSDS-TR was 0.847, and a moderate correlation (r=0.436 p=0.023) was obtained by the test-retest analysis. The SSDS-TR scores moderately correlated with the ISMI scores (r=0.485, p<0.001) and weakly correlated with the BDI scores (r=0.246, p<0.001). Conclusion: The SSDS-TR formed by excluding one item from the original scale was demonstrated to be a valid and reliable psychometric tool and is expected to fill a gap in the assessment of self stigmatization of MDD patients in Turkey.