PERCEIVED STIGMA IN THE GEORGIAN POPULATION WITH SOCIAL VULNERABILITY STATUS

Abstract

The article concerns perceived stigma, construction of the scale measuring social vulnerability status related to perceived stigma in Georgian population and the obtained results. Most items were developed on the basis of qualitative research conducted with the people holding social vulnerability status. Following an expert assessment, 263 citizens with social vulnerability status participated in the study. After apply- ing the principal component factor analysis to the scale measuring perceived stigma related to social  vulnerability status, two factors were identified:  enacted stigma (9 items, α =.87) and internalized stigma  (8 items, α=.81). The   intrascale agreement coefficient turned out to be quite high (17 items, α=.89).  Differently from the other scales measuring poverty related perceived stigma, the items on agreement with perceived stereotypes were also included in the scale. The above items fell under the dimension of internalized stigma. Also differently from other theoretical and empirical studies on perceived stigma, the fear of possible future stigmatization fell under the enacted stigma dimension. We believe that the dimension of enacted stigma comprises conceptually past and present stigmatization experiences as well as the anticipated stigmatization. In addition to exploratory factor analysis the confirmatory factor analysis was not applied in the study, which could be considered its certain limitation.&nbsp