Papers of the Week

Stigma is associated with many health conditions, including chronic pain. Research on health-related stigma is limited by the lack of validated instruments that distinguish among various stigma-related constructs. We aimed to develop and validate such a measure for pediatric functional abdominal pain (FAP). Felt stigma (FS) was defined as comprising both perceived and internalized stigma. Stigma concealment (SC) was defined as efforts by stigmatized individuals to prevent others from learning of their condition.