Measuring Recurring Stigma in the Lives of Individuals with Mental Illness

Abstract

We present an exploratory factor analysis of the 8-item Daily Indignities of Mental Illness (DIMI) scale, created to measure the detection and perceptions of recurring stigma among individuals with recent psychiatric hospitalizations. Structured in-person interviews were conducted with individuals with recent psychiatric hospitalizations in metropolitan New York. The 8-item DIMI scale’s internal consistency for the sample (n = 65), measured by Cronbach’s alpha, was 0.869. Statistically significantly higher DIMI scale scores were observed among individuals with more than 2 psychotic episodes and those reporting seeing relatives less often after hospitalization. The DIMI scale possesses good internal consistency for research contextualizing perceptions around the occurrence or recurrence of mental illness-related stigma among individuals with recent psychiatric hospitalizations.