Shame Questionnaire (Michalopoulos et al., 2015)

Feelings of shame resulting from sexual abuse experiences in children and adolescents; 8 Items, Ages 6-15

I feel ashamed because I think that people can tell from looking at me what happened (tell by look)
When I think about what happened, I want to go away by myself and hide (away and hide)
I am ashamed because I feel I am the only person in my school/work who this has happened to (only one happened)
What happened to me makes me feel dirty (feel dirty)
When I think about what happened, I feel like covering my body. (covering up)
When I think about what happened, I wish I were invisible (wish invisible)
When I think about what happened, I feel disgusted with myself (disgusted with self)
When I think about what happened, I feel exposed. (feel exposed)

Responses

Items used a 4 point Likert-type scale, 0 “not true”, 1 “somewhat true,” and 2 “very true.”

“A total sum score was generated by summing the responses for the 8 items. Scores could range from 0 to 16.” (Michalopoulos et al., 2015)

Michalopoulos, L. T. M., Murray, L. K., Kane, J. C., Skavenski van Wyk, S., Chomba, E., Cohen, J., Imasiku, M., Semrau, K., Unick, J., & Bolton, P. A. (2015). Testing the validity and reliability of the shame questionnaire among sexually abused girls in zambia. PloS One, 10(4), e0123820-e0123820. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0123820
Deblinger E, Mannarino AP, Cohen JA, Steer RA (2006) A follow-up study of a multisite, randomized, controlled trial for children with sexual abuse-related PTSD symptoms. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 45(12): 1474–1484. PMID: 17135993
Feiring C, Miller-Johnson S, Cleland CM (2007) Potential pathways from stigmatization and internalizing symptoms to delinquency in sexually abused youth. Child Maltreat 12(3): 220–232. PMID:17631622
Feiring C, Taska LS (2005) The persistence of shame following sexual abuse: A longitudinal look at risk and recovery. Child Maltreat 10(4): 337–349. PMID: 16204736

Face validity: How well a measure appears to represent the construct it is supposed to be measuring.

Convergent validity: How well a measure correlates with other hypothetically-related measures.

Construct validity: The extent to which a measure reflects the construct it was designed to evaluate.

Internal consistency: The extent to which items in a scale capture aspects of the same construct.

Test-retest: The degree to which measurement scores are consistent over a short period of time (usually 2 weeks).

Readability: The ease with which a reader can understand the questionnaire items.