Author(s)

Tarek Attia Abdelrahman¹, Roshdy Shawky Eladawy²

¹Rural Sociology Department, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El Sheikh, Egypt.
²Agricultural Economics Department, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El Sheikh, Egypt.

The Stigmatization of people is an important research point of social sciences. Stigma has a major impact on an individual’s life and society, as it can cause suffering greater than the physical disorders. This study aimed to develop a public stigma scale to people infected with COVID-19 in Saudi and examine the factorial structure and other aspects of the scale validity and reliability. Methods: The scale was distributed electronically on the study sample (518 adults)—due to the lockdown under the spread of COVID-19—through the social networking website “Twitter”. The data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis, descriptive statistics and confirmatory factor analysis using IBM SPSS 26 and AMOS 25. Results: Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the final version of the scale consists of 15 items and 3 components: cognitive, affective and behavioral stigma, which explained 65.43% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a 3-factor structure, which was satisfactory. The scale was also reliable with Cronbach’s α for the total scale was .92, and that of each subscale was .77 - .86. The scale showed adequate convergent and discriminant validity. Overall, the scale is a reliable and valid measure, which may be useful in preventing and recovering COVID-19 stigma.

Social Stigma, COVID-19, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, The Saudi Arabia Kingdom

Abdelrahman, T. and Eladawy, R. (2022) Developing a Scale of Public Stigma towards Infected People with COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 10, 98-112. doi: 10.4236/jss.2022.1011008.