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Abortion Provider Stigma Survey

The Abortion Provider Stigma Survey uses 13 items to assess abortion providers’ perceptions of stigma and its impact on providers’ professional and personal lives. It is a self-reported survey. It borrows some items from the King's Stigma Survey. The tool captures three subscales: disclosure management, resistance and resilience, and discrimination.

Categories

Geographies Tested: United States of America

Populations Included: Female

Age Range: Adults

Items:

Please consider your experiences as someone who works in abortion services. Indicate how often you have felt or experienced the following:

Disclosure Management
1. People's reactions to my being an abortion worker make me keep to myself*
2. I feel marginalized by other health workers because of my decision to work in abortion care*
3. I feel like if I tell people about my work they will only see me as an abortion worker*
4. I worry about telling people I work in abortion care*
5. It bothers me if people in my neighborhood know that I work in abortion care*
6. I avoid telling people what I do for a living*
7. I am afraid that if I tell people I work in abortion care I could put myself or my loved ones at risk for violence*

Resilience and Resistance
8. I am proud that I work in abortion care
9. I feel connected to others who do this work
10. By providing abortions I am making a positive contribution to society
11. I find it important to share with people that I work in abortion care

Discrimination
12. Newspaperstelevision take a balanced view about abortion care
13. I feel that patients use me as an emotional punching bag*

Response Options:
All of the time – 1
Often – 2
Sometimes – 3
Rarely – 4
Never – 5

* Items are reverse scored

Scoring Procedures

The mean of the total and three subscales is calculated.

Original Citation

Martin, L. A., Debbink, M., Hassinger, J., Youatt, E., Eagen-Torkko, M., & Harris, L. H. (2014). Measuring stigma among abortion providers: assessing the Abortion Provider Stigma Survey instrument. Women & Health, 54(7), 641-661. https://doi.org/10.1080/03630242.2014.919981


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Formative Research

Qualitative Research

Existing Literature/Theoretical Framework

Field Expert Input

Cognitive Interviews / Pilot Testing

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Internal

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