Translation and Validation of Urdu-Perceived Stigma of Substance Abuse Scale (PSAS)

Abstract

The Perceived Stigma of Substance Abuse Scale is a widely used instrument to measure psychological morbidity in substance abusers. This study aimed to translate and test the reliability and validity of the Urdu version of the Perceived Stigma of Substance Abuse Scale. The English version of the Perceived Stigma of Substance Abuse Scale was translated into Urdu and used in this study. The questionnaire was administered to a consecutive sample of one hundred substance abusers. In general, the Urdu version of the scale was found to be acceptable. Cronbach's alpha coefficient, used to test reliability, is 0.71 for the Perceived Stigma of Substance Abuse Scale, indicating good reliability. In this study, the Perceived Stress and Self-Esteem scales and the Perceived Stigma of Substance Abuse Scale were employed to measure their validity. The validity of the translated and adapted scale, Perceived Stigma of Substance Abuse, was assessed by calculating the item's total correlation and Inter-Item correlation with their respective rankings. Pearson correlation of measures between the perceived stigma of substance abuse, perceived stress, and self-esteem was computed for the study sample to determine the relationship between variables. This preliminary validation study of the English version of the Perceived Stigma of Substance Abuse Scale proved that it is an acceptable, reliable, and valid measure of perception of the prevalence of stigmatizing beliefs among Substance Abusers.

Keywords: Perceived stigma, substance abuse, self-esteem, perceived stress