Preliminary development of a scale to measure stigma relating to sexually transmitted infections among women in a high risk neighbourhood

Melanie L.A. Rusch, Jean A. Shoveller, Susan Burgess, Karen Stancer, David M. Patrick, Mark W. Tyndall

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: As stigma is a socially constructed concept, it would follow that stigma related to sexual behaviours and sexually transmitted infections would carry with it many of the gender-based morals that are entrenched in social constructs of sexuality. In many societies, women tend to be judged more harshly with respect to sexual morals, and would therefore have a different experience of stigma related to sexual behaviours as compared to men. While a variety of stigma scales exist for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in general; none incorporate these female-specific aspects. The objective of this study was to develop a scale to measure the unique experience of STI-related stigma among women. Methods: A pool of items was identified from qualitative and quantitative literature on sexual behaviour and STIs among women. Women attending a social evening program at a local community health clinic in a low-income neighbourhood with high prevalence of substance use were passively recruited to take part in a cross-sectional structured interview, including questions on sexual behaviour, sexual health and STI-related stigma. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify stigma scales, and descriptive statistics were used to assess the associations of demographics, sexual and drug-related risk behaviours with the emerging scales. Results: Three scales emerged from exploratory factor analysis - female-specific moral stigma, social stigma (judgement by others) and internal stigma (self-judgement) - with alpha co-efficients of 0.737, 0.705 and 0.729, respectively. In this population of women, internal stigma and social stigma carried higher scores than female-specific moral stigma. Aboriginal ethnicity was associated with higher internal and female-specific moral stigma scores, while older age (>30 years) was associated with higher female-specific moral stigma scores. Conclusion: Descriptive statistics indicated an important influence of culture and age on specific types of stigma. Quantitative researchers examining STI-stigma should consider incorporating these female-specific factors in order to tailor scales for women.

Original languageEnglish
Article number21
JournalBMC Women's Health
Volume8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 20 2008
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding support was provided through the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research and through the Canadian Institutes for Health Research – Partnerships for Community Health Research program. Authors would also like to acknowledge the help of the clinic staff, and the participation and support of the women.

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Reproductive Medicine
  • Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Preliminary development of a scale to measure stigma relating to sexually transmitted infections among women in a high risk neighbourhood'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this

Rusch, M. L. A., Shoveller, J. A., Burgess, S., Stancer, K., Patrick, D. M., & Tyndall, M. W. (2008). Preliminary development of a scale to measure stigma relating to sexually transmitted infections among women in a high risk neighbourhood. BMC Women's Health, 8, Article 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6874-8-21