Spanish version of the Link's Perceived Devaluation and Discrimination scale.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study is to translate, adapt and validate the “Perceived Devaluation and Discrimination Scale” (PDD) in Spanish in a sample of people with schizophrenia. METHOD A total of 130 people between 18 and 65 years and with a diagnosis of schizophrenia according to DSM-IV-R criteria from Barcelona and Vitoria were included. The patients were assessed with the translated version of the PDD, the Social Functioning Scale (SFS), the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), the Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI-S) and the Self-perception of Stigma Questionnaire for people with schizophrenia (SSQ). RESULTS The questionnaire scored a Cronbach’s a of .868 regarding its internal consistency reliability. Two components were found in the factorial analysis explaining 40% of the variance of the instrument (component 1 associated with individual self-perception and component 2 refers more to social stigma). The stability of the instrument   measured using the intraclass correlation coefficient on both occasions oscillated between .415 and .806. Significant correlations were found with SSQ and SFS. CONCLUSIONS The Spanish version of the PDD seems a good instrument for the assessment of self stigma.