%0 Journal Article %@ 2056-4724 %A Mitter, N %A Ali, A %A Scior, K %D 2018 %F discovery:10055131 %J BJPsych Open %K Stigma, attitudes, autism, developmental disability, family, intellectual disability %N 5 %P 332-338 %T Stigma experienced by family members of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities: multidimensional construct %U https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10055131/ %V 4 %X Background: There is a lack of good-quality instruments measuring stigma experienced by family members of stigmatised people. // Aims: To develop a self-report measure of stigma among families of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and examine associations between family stigma and other variables. // Method: The new Family Stigma Instrument (FAMSI) was tested with 407 family carers, 53% of whose offspring had an autism spectrum disorder in addition to intellectual disability. They also completed measures of subjective well-being, caregiver burden, self-esteem and social support. // Results: The FAMSI yielded a five-factor structure and had good reliability. Perceived family stigma, caregiver burden and subjective well-being were the strongest predictors of family stigma. // Conclusions: This instrument can advance our understanding of the impact of stigma on family members. It can also help us understand sociodemographic, psychosocial and contextual variables of both the carer and cared for person that may influence family members' experiences. // Declaration of interest: None. %Z © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2018. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.