Assessing the Validity of the Social Impact Scale Among a Longitudinal Cohort of Adolescents and Young Adults Living with Perinatally-Acquired HIV.

BACKGROUND: With few psychometrically evaluated HIV related stigma measures for adolescents and young adults (AYA) living with HIV, we examined the developmental applicability (i.e., validity) of two subscales of the commonly used stigma measure, the Social Impact Scale (SIS), among a cohort of adolescents and young adults with perinatally-acquired HIV.

SETTING: Data came from a New York City longitudinal study (N=340). This study primarily comprises Black and Latinx AYA with either perinatally-acquired HIV (PHIV) or those with perinatal exposure but who are uninfected. Data for this analysis came from the PHIV population and spanned approximately a 15-year survey period (2003-2018).

METHODS: A confirmatory factor analysis was used at seven time points to assess if the Social Rejection and Internalized Shame subscales were consistent in this cohort over time. Overall and individual Cronbach's alphas were reported to show the strength of the internal consistency.

RESULTS: Mean age from Baseline to Follow-Up 6 ranged from 12-23 years over the study period. The Social Rejection subscale was acceptably valid across follow-up periods with strong factor loadings and Cronbach's alphas higher than 0.70. However, the Internalized Shame subscale was less valid among younger adolescents. Starting at Follow-Up 2, we observed better validity with the Internalized Shame subscale performance.

CONCLUSION: Future research must consider mechanisms for developing and adapting measures from a developmental perspective to best measure the experiences of HIV-related stigma among younger populations.