CIESAL residents and researchers meet with Mental Health Network
1/07/2025
A research team comprising Child and Adolescent Psychiatry residents from the Universidad de Valparaíso, along with CIESAL UV faculty members Dr. Fanny Leyton and Dr. Rubén Alvarado, met with representatives from various primary and secondary care centres in the Valparaíso-San Antonio Health Service (SSVSA) Mental Health Network. The purpose of the meeting, which took place on 17 June, was held to unveil the project and initiate fieldwork for a study seeking to validate the Paediatric Self-Stigmatisation Scale (PaedS) and explore self-perceived stigma among children receiving care from this mental health network.
The stigma mentioned above refers to the attribution of negative characteristics to a person or group of people based on certain traits, even when these traits are not inherently negative. This stigma becomes evident when people who are perceived as different are labelled and stereotypes are attributed to them, leading to their segregation, loss of status and discrimination. In the field of mental health, stigma has been conceptualised according to the origin of the stigmatising attitude: public stigma (present in society in general); institutional or professional stigma (arising from health service providers themselves); and self-stigma (internalised by the affected individuals themselves).
The stigma surrounding mental health is a key factor that can delay people from seeking help, resulting in a delayed diagnosis and treatment. Currently, Chile lacks standardised instruments to quantify stigma among children and adolescents, and no research has been conducted to examine this phenomenon in this age group. The PaedS scale measures self-stigma in individuals aged 8 to 12 who are receiving mental health care; however, there is no Spanish-language version that has been validated. For this reason, the team is seeking to validate this tool for children in Chile receiving care through the public mental health network.
On this occasion, the lead researcher, Dr. Claudio Tapia, a second-year resident in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UV, presented the main elements of the project to representatives from different centres in the network. These representatives were invited to participate in the data collection phase, which is scheduled to take place between July and September 2025. Dr. Tapia highlighted the positive reaction and willingness to collaborate shown by the healthcare teams. During this phase, researchers will conduct interviews with children and their parents or caregivers and use tools to collect quantitative information as well as experiences and perceptions. They will also develop a psychoeducational intervention aimed at raising awareness of mental health stigma and mitigating its negative effects on this population.
This project is funded by the UV through the awarding of thesis grants to residents Claudio Tapia and Tamara Collao, and is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Julie Vignato of the University of Iowa, who has previously conducted research on stigma in the Latino population in the United States using the PaedS scale, and has obtained authorisation from the scale’s creator, Dr. Marinos Kyriakopoulos, for its validation. The project will provide a reliable, validated, free tool for future research into mental health stigma in children.