TITLE:
Developing a Scale of Public Stigma towards Infected People with COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis
AUTHORS:
Tarek Attia Abdelrahman, Roshdy Shawky Eladawy
KEYWORDS:
Social Stigma, COVID-19, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, The Saudi Arabia Kingdom
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.10 No.11,
October
14,
2022
ABSTRACT: The Stigmatization of
people is an important research point of social sciences. Stigma has a major
impact on an individual’s life and society, as it can cause suffering greater
than the physical disorders. This study aimed to develop a public stigma scale to
people infected with COVID-19 in Saudi and examine the factorial structure and
other aspects of the scale validity and reliability. Methods: The scale
was distributed electronically on the study sample (518 adults)—due to the
lockdown under the spread of COVID-19—through the social networking website
“Twitter”. The data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis,
descriptive statistics and confirmatory factor analysis using IBM SPSS 26 and
AMOS 25. Results: Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the final
version of the scale consists of 15 items and 3 components: cognitive,
affective and behavioral stigma, which explained 65.43% of the total variance.
Confirmatory factor analysis supported a 3-factor structure, which was
satisfactory. The scale was also reliable with Cronbach’s α for the total scale
was .92, and that of each subscale was .77 - .86. The scale showed adequate
convergent and discriminant validity. Overall, the scale is a reliable and
valid measure, which may be useful in preventing and recovering COVID-19 stigma.