Construction of ‘Kolkata-Mental Illness Stigma Scale (K-MISS)’

Pages: 363-370
Suchandra Chakraborty (MPhil Trainee Clinical Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal)

Asmita Karmakar ( UGC Senior research fellow, University of Calcutta,Kolkata, West Bengal)

Aparajita Chakraborty (Department of Psychology, Amity University, Kolkata, West Bengal)

Anindita Mukherjee ( Clinical Psychologist, Department of Health and family welfare, Govt of West Bengal)

Tapolagna Das (Department of Psychology, Sidho Kanho Birsha University, Lagda, West Bengal)
Manisha Bhattacharya (Clinical Psychologist, Autism Society, West Bengal)

Atri Sanyal (State aided college teacher, Department of Psychology, Maharani Kasiswari College, Kolkata, West Benga)

Saranya Banerjee (UGC Senior research fellow, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal)

Anwista Ganguly ( State Aided College Teacher, Department of Psychology, Maharani Kasiswari College, Kolkata, West Bengal)

Urmimala Ghosh (MPhil Trainee in Clinical Psychology, University of Calcutta,Kolkata, West Bengal)
Arumina Mitra (Counsellor, DPS, Joka, Kolkata, West Bengal)

Jaspreet Kaur (Research Scholar, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal)

Atanu Kumar Dogra (Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal)

Jishnu Bhattacharya (Neuropsychiatrist, Suri Sadar Hospital, West Bengal Health Service, Suri, Birbhum, West Bengal)
Sanjukta Das (Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal)

Identification and community based interventions of stigma are essential aspects of mental health. Considering this context, on the basis of theoretical conceptualization of stigma related to mental illness and current socio-cultural scenario, we attempted to construct a Bengali standardized scale to measure ‘mental illness stigma in general population’. Initially, content of the fifty seven items were generated from experts’ opinions under the domains of three components of stigma- ‘stereotypes (cognitive knowledge structures), evoked emotions and attitudinal/behavioural consequences’ with three point rating response category using vignettes(depicting any psychiatric disorder, here schizophrenia was considered). Then the scale was administered on 522 Bengali speaking, graduate participates (age range 25-40 years)for item analysis processes. Finally, 54 items were retained considering significant item total correlation and explored under components using exploratory factor analysis. Satisfactory test retest and internal consistency reliability were found for all domains of newly developed stigma scale