La Vergüenza [The Shame]: Measuring Affiliate Stigma Associated With Youth Mental Health Problems Among Latinx Caregivers

Abstract

Affiliate stigma or internalized shame among family of individuals with stigmatizing conditions, may be an important factor influencing help-seeking behaviors among Latinx caregivers of youth with mental health problems. The Affiliate Stigma Scale assesses Affect, Behavior, and Cognitive dimensions of stigma from caring for adults with intellectual disabilities. Among Latinxs, this scale has been adapted as a unidimensional measure of stigma from caring for a child with developmental disabilities and has been used to study resulting parenting stress and caregiver mental health problems. Research has yet to adapt thismeasure to examinemultiple dimensions of affiliate stigma that Latinx caregivers may experience in response to youth emotional and/or behavioral problem. We sampled 511 (English = 275, Spanish = 236) Latinx caregivers and confirmed the factor structure of an adapted English- and Spanishlanguage Youth Affiliate Stigma Scale (YASS; ages 6–18), which specifically inquiries about caregiver stigma related to youth emotional or behavioral problems. Confirmatory factor analyses suggests that the measurement structure is best represented by the original three-factor solution. The similar measurement structure in both English and Spanish versions also suggests that YASS latent factors could be used across both language versions. All three dimensions of the YASS were associated with youth internalizing and externalizing problems. However, findings suggest externalizing problems may be particularly stigmatizing for Latinx caregivers. The YASS may improve our understanding of perceptual barrier to youth mental health services that could represent a fruitful point of intervention to address disparities within this group.