Development of self-stigma scale for adolescents in conflict with the law and its association with implicit self-stigma.

Introduction: Research on self-stigma among justice-involved adolescents is limited by a lack of dedicated instruments and an overreliance on explicit self-reports susceptible to social desirability bias. Methods: Two studies were conducted. Study 1 developed and validated the Self-Stigma Scale for Adolescents in Conflict with the Law (SSS-ACL), confirming a two-factor structure comprising perceived and internalized stigma with sound psychometric properties. Study 2 employed two IRAP protocols based on the DAARRE model to capture spontaneous relational responding for each dimension. Results: This showed that 81.08% of participants displayed positive implicit perceived stigma (automatic group-negative associations), whereas only 25.68% displayed positive implicit internalized stigma (automatic negative self-linkages); he two implicit indices were uncorrelated. Explicit-implicit correlations were conditional: explicit internalized stigma was unrelated to both IRAP indices, explicit perceived stigma was only marginally associated with its implicit counterpart, and explicit perceived stigma showed a small positive correlation with implicit internalized stigma. Discussion: These findings suggest that perceived and internalized stigma are functionally distinct at both reflective and spontaneous levels, and that robust implicit perceived stigma does not automatically translate into internalized self-stigma, consistent with a possible self-protective function. Practically, combining explicit and implicit measures may improve stigma assessment, and interventions should prioritize blocking internalization over merely reducing awareness of public stigma.