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BMC Psychiatry
Published in: BMC Psychiatry 1/2018

Open Access 01-12-2018 | Research article

The Prejudice towards People with Mental Illness (PPMI) scale: structure and validity

Authors: Amanda Kenny, Boris Bizumic, Kathleen M. Griffiths

Published in: BMC Psychiatry | Issue 1/2018

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Abstract

Background

Although there is a substantial body of research on the stigma associated with mental illness, much of the extant research has not explicitly focused on the concept of prejudice, which drives discriminatory behaviour. Further, research that has investigated prejudice towards people with mental illness has conceptual, theoretical and psychometric limitations. To address these shortcomings, we sought to develop a new measure, the Prejudice towards People with Mental Illness (PPMI) scale, based on an improved conceptualisation and integration of the stigma and prejudice areas of research.

Methods

In developing the new scale, we undertook a thematic analysis of existing conceptualisations and measures to identify a pool of potential items for the scale which were subsequently assessed for fidelity and content validity by expert raters. We tested the structure, reliability, and validity of the scale across three studies (Study 1 N = 301; Study 2 N = 164; Study 3 N = 495) using exploratory factor, confirmatory factor, correlational, multiple regression, and ordinal logistic regression analyses using both select and general community samples.

Results

Study 1 identified four factors underlying prejudice towards people with mental illness: fear/avoidance, malevolence, authoritarianism, and unpredictability. It also confirmed the nomological network, that is, the links of these attitudes with the proposed theoretical antecedents and consequences. Studies 2 and 3 further supported the factor structure of the measure, and provided additional evidence for the nomological network.

Conclusions

We argue that research into prejudice towards people with mental illness will benefit from the new measure and theoretical framework.
Appendix
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Footnotes
1
The CFA for the seven-factor model did not demonstrate a clear solution, with modification indices suggesting that many items loaded strongly on two or more factors. Similarly, intercorrelations between factors were strong (up to .92, p < .001), indicating that several hypothesised factors measured the same construct.
 
2
We also tested an item-level CFA of the four-factor model with two additional method factors (i.e., positive and negative items loading on their respective method factors). It showed acceptable fit, χ2(316) = 551.32, p < .001, CFI = .88, RMSEA = .07, SRMR = .08, with all items loading on their hypothesised factors. The fit was better than that of alternative models, such as one-factor and three-factor models with method factors. This analysis was somewhat affected by the moderate sample size in relation to the model’s complexity.
 
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Metadata
Title
The Prejudice towards People with Mental Illness (PPMI) scale: structure and validity
Authors
Amanda Kenny
Boris Bizumic
Kathleen M. Griffiths
Publication date
01-12-2018
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Psychiatry / Issue 1/2018
Electronic ISSN: 1471-244X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1871-z

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