Development of Orphans Stigma Scale: Stigma as a Predictor of Psychological Issues among Orphans Resides in Orphanages

The objective of the current study was to develop an Orphan Stigma Scale for Adolescents (OSSA) in Urdu language and to estimate reliability of the indigenously developed scale. The scale was subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis on the sample of orphans who resides in orphan homes. For development and standardization of Orphan Stigma Scale, 150 children of ages 12 to 17 years were selected from various orphanages of Gujranwala division and Multan, Punjab, Pakistan. After exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis 36 items were retained with five well-defined factor structure of Orphan Stigma Scale. The Orphan Stigma Scale (OSS) demonstrated the good psychometric properties with high level of internal consistency and reliability (.914), split half (.845) and test retest for 46 participants (.894) reliability at 0.01 level of significance. Orphanhood is linked with high level of psychological problems. Second objective of current study was to investigate the effect of stigma in psychological issues such as depression, anxiety and conduct disorder among orphans resides in orphan homes in Gujranwala division, Pakistan. 200 children of ages 12-17 years were selected by using purposive sampling technique to investigate the effect of stigma in developing psychological issues among orphans. Participants were assessed on Demographic form, Orphan Stigma Scale, -Revised Children`s Manifest Anxiety Scale, Second Edition (Reynolds & Richmond, 1978), Depression Scale for Children (Weissman, Orvaschel & Padian, 1980), Conduct Disorder Scale (Gilliam, 2002). To examine the relation of Stigma with Anxiety, Depression and Conduct disorder linear Regression Analysis was used. The results show that stigma has a significant predictor of anxiety (R= .361; R²= .130, F= 29.250 ,P<0.01), depression (R=.295 ; R²= .087 , F= 18.579 ,P<0.01) and conduct disorder (R= .128; R²=.016, F= 3.191, P<0.01).

Conclusion: It is concluded from the findings of this research showed significant Impact of stigma on depression, anxiety and conduct disorder on Orpan resides in Orpanages.