Objectives: The aim of the study is to adapt the Generalized Anxiety
Disorder Stigma Scale to Turkish and to determine its psychometric
properties. This scale, which can be used for anyone showing generalized
anxiety symptoms, has two sub-scale consisting of 9 statements (personal
stigma and perceived stigma).
Method: After the translation, 659 participants were included in the
study via convenience sampling. The demographic information form,
the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Stigma Scale, the Internalized Stigma
of Mental Illness Scale, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 were
presented to the participants as a questionnaire set.
Results: Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, test-retest and item total
correlation findings were obtained for reliability. Cronbach’s alpha
values of the scale were 0.78 for the personal stigma sub-scale and 0.87
for the perceived stigma sub-scale. In the analyses conducted for testretest
reliability, the findings showed that the Spearman correlation
coefficients were 0.70 for the personal stigma sub-scale and 0.79 for the
perceived stigma sub-scale. The results indicated that the scale possesses
reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis was applied for validity. Similar
to the original scale, it was observed that the factor loadings were
clustered in two sub-dimensions, but it was decided to remove 2 items
from the scale, making it a form consisting of 18 items in total.
Conclusion: As a result, the findings obtained show that the scale has
reliable and valid psychometric properties. The scale can be used in
both research and clinical applications to measure stigma specifically for
generalized anxiety symptoms.
Keywords: Anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, scale, stigma