Assessing the factorial structure of the mental illness public stigma in Spain.

These results improve the findings from other studies that try to validate the AQ27 in other languages. We discuss the different factors that should be considered in the estimation of public stigma and the necessity to implement programmes to reduce it to enable recovery.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONSince the public stigma of mental illness is an obstacle to recovery and rehabilitation, reliable instruments are needed to assess it.A parsimonious instrument in Spanish with good psychometric characteristics for measuring public stigma is obtained.Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, a questionnaire of 14 items is obtained.Four factors constitute the instrument: "dangerousness-fear", "coercion", "lack of solidarity", and "avoidance".