Examining the Psychometric Properties of a Revised 40-Item Berger HIV Stigma Scale

Xiaobei Chen; Rebecca Fisk-Hoffman; Christina E Parisi; Ibrahim Yigit; Henna Budhwani; Maya Widmeyer; Zhi Zhou; Charurut Somboonwit; Jessy Devieux; Yancheng Li; Krishna Vaddiparti; Robert J Lucero; Robert L Cook; Yiyang Liu

doi:10.1007/s10461-025-04956-9

Examining the Psychometric Properties of a Revised 40-Item Berger HIV Stigma Scale

AIDS Behav. 2025 Dec 9:10.1007/s10461-025-04956-9. doi: 10.1007/s10461-025-04956-9. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Xiaobei Chen^{1

2}, Rebecca Fisk-Hoffman¹, Christina E Parisi^{1

3}, Ibrahim Yigit⁴, Henna Budhwani⁴, Maya Widmeyer⁵, Zhi Zhou¹, Charurut Somboonwit⁶, Jessy Devieux⁷, Yancheng Li¹, Krishna Vaddiparti¹, Robert J Lucero^{8

9

10}, Robert L Cook¹, Yiyang Liu¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health and Health Professions & College of Medicine, University of Florida, 2004 Mowry Road, PO Box 100231, Gainesville, FL, 32610- 0231, USA.
² College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
³ Penn Center for Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
⁴ College of Nursing, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
⁵ Comprehensive Health Care, Melbourne, FL, USA.
⁶ Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
⁷ Department of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.
⁸ School of Nursing, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁹ Chicano Studies Research Center, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹⁰ College of Nursing, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
¹¹ Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health and Health Professions & College of Medicine, University of Florida, 2004 Mowry Road, PO Box 100231, Gainesville, FL, 32610- 0231, USA. yliu26@ufl.edu.

Abstract

Over the past decades, as social contexts and knowledge about HIV have evolved, the conceptualization and understanding of HIV stigma, as well as the measures used to assess it, may have also shifted. This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of a revised version of the Berger scale which updated language to better capture HIV stigma in the Southern U.S. The revisions were informed by focus group discussions with people with HIV (PWH) in Florida. Following three focus groups, the updated scale was tested among 461 PWH. The internal structure was evaluated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The EFA analysis supported a four-factor structure. These four latent factors corresponded to the original dimensions of the Berger scale. All evaluated models demonstrated good model fit indices. The revised scale also showed high reliability, with composite reliability (omega) values for each subscale exceeding 0.89. Measurement invariance testing across race and gender groups further indicated that invariance was upheld. The revised scale also demonstrated high reliability, and composite reliability omega for each sub-scale was over 0.89. We further conducted measurement invariance across race and gender groups, and the measurement invariance was hold. We found that the revised scale is highly reliable, encouraging wider testing of this scale in a variety of populations.

Keywords: Berger scale; Confirmatory factor analysis; HIV stigma.

Abstract

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