Citation

Caplan S. Community Ment. Health J. 2016; 52(6): 701-709.

Affiliation

School of Nursing, Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, 228 Ackerson Hall, 180 University Avenue, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA. Susan.caplan@rutgers.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10597-016-0005-7

PMID

27085546

Abstract

In order to understand the effects of interventions designed to reduce stigma about mental illness, we need valid measures. However, the validity of commonly used measures is compromised by social desirability bias. The purpose of this pilot study was to test an anonymous method of measuring stigma in the community setting. The method of data collection, Preguntas con Cartas (Questions with Cards) used numbered playing cards to conduct anonymous group polling about stigmatizing beliefs during a mental health literacy intervention. An analysis of the difference between Preguntas con Cartas stigma votes and corresponding face-to-face individual survey results for the same seven stigma questions indicated that there was a statistically significant differences in the distributions between the two methods of data collection (χ(2) = 8.27, p = 0.016). This exploratory study has shown the potential effectiveness of Preguntas con Cartas as a novel method of measuring stigma in the community-based setting.

Language: en