Open Access

ARTICLE

Psychometric Properties of the Shortened Chinese Version of the Community Attitudes towards the Mentally Ill Scale

Si-Yu Gao¹, Siu-Man Ng^2,*

1 School of Sociology, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, 100088, China
2 Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

* Corresponding Author: Siu-Man Ng. Email:

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion 2025, 27(10), 1471-1482. https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2025.068702

Received 04 June 2025; Accepted 10 September 2025; Issue published 31 October 2025

Abstract

Background: Existing Chinese stigma scales focus on the perceptions of people with mental illness (PMI) without assessing the general public’s attitudes toward integrating PMI into the community. Developing a valid and reliable Chinese instrument measuring the attitude domain will be helpful to future research in this area. The current study aimed to validate a shortened Chinese version of the Community Attitudes towards the Mentally Ill Scale (C-CAMI-SF). Methods: Four hundred participants who are (1) Chinese; (2) aged 18 years and above; and (3) able to complete the Chinese questionnaire in a self-reported manner participated in the research. Principal component analysis was conducted to explore the factor structure of the scale. Internal consistency was examined using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Three other questionnaires: Social Distance Scale (SDS), The Attribution Questionnaires-9-Item Version (AQ-9), and the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List-12 (ISEL-12), were used to examine the convergent and divergent validity of the scale. Results: Finally, seventeen items were retained in the C-CAMI-SF with factor loadings ranging from 0.51 to 0.81. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the scale were revealed to be 0.58, 0.57, 0.75, and 0.68 for each subscale, respectively. Although the first two values fall just short of the conventional 0.70 benchmark, this is still acceptable for a unidimensional subscale comprising only 3–4 items. Significant correlations (p < 0.05) were obtained in the expected directions between the C-CAMI-SF and the other three validity check scales. Conclusion: The 17-item C-CAMI-SF validated in the current study demonstrated good psychometric properties and conceptual coherence. It also provided implications for future stigma reduction interventions.

---

Keywords

---