The following is a summary of “Self-stigma in alcohol dependence scale: development and validity of the short form,” published in the October 2024 issue of Psychiatry by Rieckhof et al.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to evaluate self-stigma in individuals with alcohol use disorder using the Self-Stigma in Alcohol-Dependence Scale-Short Form.
They refined the 64-item Self-Stigma in Alcohol-Dependence Scale by eliminating the most offensive items identified by individuals with lived experience. The new scale was then assessed and validated in a cross-sectional study involving 156 individuals reporting alcohol issues across various treatment settings.
The results showed that the 20-item Self-Stigma in Alcohol-Dependence Scale-Short Form includes five stereotypes and exhibits good internal consistency. It reflects a 4-stage model of self-stigmatization, showing decreasing scores across awareness of stereotypes, agreement with stereotypes, self-application of stereotypes, and harmful consequences for self-esteem, with the highest correlations between adjacent stages. The subscales apply and harm correlated with internalized stigma, shame, reduced self-esteem, and lower drinking-refusal self-efficacy, as supported by multivariate regression models.
Investigators concluded that the Self-Stigma in Alcohol-Dependence Scale-Short Form is a valid tool for assessing self-stigmatization in individuals with alcohol use disorder, with self-stigma predicting lower self-esteem, increased shame, and diminished drinking-refusal self-efficacy.
Source: bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-024-06187-z#Abs1
