The Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Stigma Scale is a 20-item instrument designed to assess perceived stigma around different dimensions of adolescent SRH and family planning (sex, contraception, pregnancy, child-bearing, abortion) among young women. The scale contains three subscales: internalized stigma (6 items), enacted stigma (7 items), and stigmatizing lay attitudes (7 items).
Geographies Tested: Ghana
Populations Included: Female
Age Range: Adolescents, Adults
Enacted Stigma
1.People behave differently toward a teen whom they know has had sex
2.People behave differently toward a teen whom they know has had an abortion
3.People behave differently toward a teen whom they know has used modern family-planning methods
4.Having sex as a teen often leads to getting beaten or physically hurt by one’s parents
5.Becoming pregnant and having a baby as a teen would cause people to behave differently around me
6.Becoming pregnant and having a baby as a teen would cause others to tease, insult, swear, or gossip about me
Internalized Stigma
7.Having sex as a teen is a form of disobedience
8.Young women who have abortions are bad girls
9.Young women who use modern family planning are promiscuous
10.Teens who use modern family planning are viewed as bad girls
11.Having sex as a teen brings disgrace and shame to a young woman and her family
12.Becoming pregnant and having a baby as a teen would bring disgrace to my family
13.Becoming pregnant and having a baby as a teen would make me feel ashamed and bad about myself
Stigmatizing Lay Attitudes
14.Young women who have abortions will encourage others to have abortions
15.Modern family planning is not acceptable for unmarried women
16.Modern family-planning methods have bad effects on a woman’s health
17.Having an abortion is committing murder
18.The media, including the television, Internet, or magazines, has a strong impact on teens’ sexual behavior
19.When teens have sex for the first time, it is usually because they were pressured by their friends or partners to do so
20.Children born to teen parents are worse off than those born to adults
Response Options:
Agree - 1
Neutral - 0
Disagree - 0
Items are summed to create a total scale score ranging from 0-20 possible points. Higher scores mean higher perceived stigma.
Hall, K. S., Manu, A., Morhe, E., Harris, L. H., Loll, D., Ela, E., Kolenic, G., Dozier, J. L., Challa, S., Zochowski, M. K., Boakye, A., Adanu, R., & Dalton, V. K. (2018). Development and validation of a scale to measure adolescent sexual and reproductive health stigma: Results from young women in Ghana. Journal of Sex Research, 55(1), 60-72. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2017.1292493
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