RTI International, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA.
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Ear Hear. 2024;45(Suppl 1):17S-25S. doi: 10.1097/AUD.0000000000001476. Epub 2024 Sep 19.
In this article, we examine the psychometric performance of 3 scales measuring experienced, perceived, and internalized d/Deaf or hard of hearing (d/DHH) stigma among adult (18 and older) populations of individuals who are d/DHH, including those who have been d/DHH since before they developed language (lifelong) and those who became d/DHH after they developed language (acquired) in the United States and Ghana.
The preliminary validation study took place in the Greater Accra and Eastern regions of Ghana and across the United States. In the United States, all data were collected online via self-administered surveys in English. In Ghana, trained interviewers who are d/DHH and fluent in Ghanaian Sign Language conducted interviews with participants who are lifelong d/DHH using a video survey. Ghanaian participants with acquired d/DHH status were surveyed by trained hearing interviewers. We calculated polychoric correlation matrices between the measures to remove redundant and unrelated items and used exploratory factor analysis to create the final scales. We also tested the association between the factor scores and a simple summing method for calculating the scale.
The study sample included people who have been d/DHH since before they developed language (Ghana: n = 171, United States n = 100) and people who became d/DHH after they developed language (Ghana: n = 174, United States: n = 219). The final experienced, perceived, and internalized scales included six, seven, and five items, respectively. All three scales performed well as unidimensional measures across all four samples. Across the four samples, the experienced, perceived, and internalized stigma scales yielded ordinal αs ranging from 0.725 to 0.947, 0.856 to 0.935, and 0.856 to 0.935, respectively. It would be acceptable to operationalize all stigma scales as sum-of-item scores.
The scales performed well and appear to provide a valid means of measuring different types of stigma among diverse groups of people who are d/DHH. Future work should refine and validate these scales in additional contexts.
本文研究了 3 种量表在测量成年（18 岁及以上）聋人或重听人群的经历性、感知性和内化性聋人或重听污名时的心理计量学性能，这些量表适用于在美国和加纳的终生聋人或重听（从语言发展之前就失聪/重听的）以及后天聋人或重听（在语言发展之后失聪/重听的）人群。
初步验证研究在美国加纳的大阿克拉和东部地区以及美国各地进行。在美国，所有数据都是通过英语在线自我管理调查收集的。在加纳，受过培训的聋人双语手语翻译员与终生聋人或重听的参与者进行视频调查访谈。后天聋人或重听的加纳参与者由受过培训的听力访谈员进行调查。我们计算了各测量之间的多项式相关矩阵，以去除冗余和不相关的项目，并使用探索性因素分析创建最终的量表。我们还测试了因子得分与计算量表的简单求和方法之间的相关性。
研究样本包括从语言发展前就失聪/重听的人群（加纳：n = 171，美国：n = 100）和语言发展后失聪/重听的人群（加纳：n = 174，美国：n = 219）。最终的经历性、感知性和内化性量表分别包含 6、7 和 5 个项目。在所有四个样本中，这三个量表都表现出良好的单维度测量性能。在这四个样本中，经历性、感知性和内化性污名量表的等级α值范围分别为 0.725 至 0.947、0.856 至 0.935 和 0.856 至 0.935。将所有污名量表作为项目总和的操作化是可以接受的。
这些量表表现良好，似乎为测量不同类型的聋人或重听污名提供了一种有效的方法，适用于不同的聋人或重听人群。未来的工作应该在其他环境中进一步完善和验证这些量表。
