Salman Shahzad
Salman Shahzad1, Muzaffar Ali1, Nasreen Begum2. 1Institute of Clinical Psychology, University of Karachi, Pakistan; 2Virtual University of Pakistan, Pakistan
Objective: The present study aims to translate and adapt the perceived stigma of substance abuse scale (PSAS) into the Urdu language and to determine its psychometric properties.
Method: Male participants (N = 200) aged between 19-45 years (M = 29.90. years, SD =6.32) were recruited from substance use treatment centers and hospitals situated in city of Karachi, Pakistan. Majority of patients were married (57.5%), and 39.5% were unmarried with few 2.0% were divorced. Off the total participants, 8.5% were uneducated and 7% were between grade 1-5, 42% completed education up to grade 10, and 42% got education above grade 10 level. Majority of participants (37%) reported to use heroin, 10% used Hashish/cannabis and 35.5% used multiple drugs. Participants completed Personal Information Form, The Perceived Stigma of Substance Abuse Scale (PSAS; Luoma, et al., 2010), Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1965) and the MPSS (Zimet et al., 1985) in Urdu.
Results: Reliability of the Urdu version of PSAS inferred by cronbach’s alpha and test retest reliability. The cronbach alpha for the PSAS (Cronbach alpha = .764) is adequate. Similarly, both the RSES (Cronbach alpha = .73) and MPSS total (Cronbach alpha = .94) had adequate internal consistency. Findings show that there is significant negative relationship of Perceived stigma of substance abuse with self esteem (r = -0.330, p < .001), perceived social support from family (r = -0.222, p < .001), friends (r = -0.175, p < .05) and significant others (r = -0.149, p < .05), and multidimensional perceived social support (r = -0.205, p < .001).
Conclusion: The Urdu version of PSAS has good psychometric properties and is a reliable measure for determining perceived stigma of substance abuse in patients with SUD in Pakistan.
Keywords: Perceived stigma, self esteem, family, friends, significant others, social support, substance use.