AUTHOR=Dobener Lisa-Marie , Stracke Markus , Viehl Kathrin , Christiansen Hanna 

TITLE=Children of Parents With a Mental Illness—Stigma Questionnaire: Development and Piloting

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.800037

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2022.800037

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=Children of parents with a mental illness are a particularly vulnerable group for stigmatization because of their well-known risks in general, such as developing a mental illness themselves. Moreover, just like primary recipients of stigma, they are affected by the social taboo surrounding mental illness: They do not receive enough information, are often left alone with their problems, and are thus considered "invisible children”. In previous research, family stigma has only been assessed through general questionnaires for all family members. What has not yet been adequately investigated is how stigma difficulties affect the children of parents with mental illness in particular. 
To address these limitations, we developed the Children of Parents with Mental Illness-Stigma-Questionnaire (COPMI-SQ), a self-report instrument  for 12-19 year olds, designed to assess young people's stigma experiences in daily life. Based on a systematic review preceding the questionnaire, we identified relevant stigma dimensions for children of parents with a mental illness that resulted in 93 items that we planned to load on four different scales: experienced stigma, anticipated stigma, self-stigma, and structural discrimination. An expert discussion, and a comprehensibility analysis with the target group followed. 
We report here on the development process and initial pilot data (N=32) on the psychometric properties of the COPMI-SQ. Item analyses via an item difficulty index, discriminatory power, as well as internal consistency analysis resulted in a revised instrument reduced to 67 items. We observed very high internal consistencies (between α = .868 and α = .975) for the subscales. 
The approach taken to develop the COPMI-SQ followed scientifically accepted principles by ensuring different construction phases and is considered a solid basis for further reliability and validity studies. The study is ongoing and undergoing a further validation investigation; dimensionality and factor structure will also be examined.