Despite ample evidence of the existence of DM-specific stigma, limited attempts have been made to measure it. The Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS) was designed to measure "emotional burden, physician-related distress, regimen-related distress, and…interpersonal distress" associated with DM. However, the DDS does not comprehensively measure all the types of stigma minority stress theory has shown to contribute to chronic disease health disparities. The Barriers to Diabetes Adherence measure includes six questions about stigma, but the scope of these questions was limited and targeted towards an adolescent population with Type 1 DM. A limited number of previous publications have adapted disease-specific stigma scales from other conditions or developed their own questionnaires for said conditions for their diabetes stigma research needs. To date, only one publication has developed and validated a stigma scale specifically for DM patients, and this measure only addressed self-stigma. Therefore, to our knowledge, there is currently no scale that measures multiple facets of DM-specific stigma that may be contributing to sub-optimal patient diabetes self-management. Given the relationship between stigma, treatment adherence, and adverse health outcomes for chronic disease patients, development of a comprehensive DM stigma scale may lead to improvements in DM patient centered care, which will be addressed by the following Specific Aims: