Anti-LGBTQ+ Attitudes Scale: Development and psychometric properties of an instrument for the Spanish population

Attitudes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer individuals, and other sexual and gender minorities (LGBTQ+) refer to prejudices and discriminatory behaviors directed toward LGBTQ+ individuals. This rejection has been associated with poorer mental health among the population who suffer it. In Spain, there are no measures to widely assess this phenomenon and include the entire LGBTQ+ community. The aim of the present study was to develop and validate the Anti-LGBTQ+ Attitudes Scale in the Spanish population. A total of 8,953 Spanish individuals, with a mean age of 35.90 ( SD = 13.34), completed this scale that assessed beliefs, prejudices, affect, acceptance, and behaviors toward the LGBTQ+ community. The majority identified as cis women (51.6%) or cis men (45.4%) and as heterosexual (60.5%). Through exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, a bifactor model emerged, which on one hand, evaluated anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes overall, and on the other hand, consisted of two subfactors (“negative attitudes” and “positive attitudes”). This questionnaire, in addition to demonstrating excellent internal consistency, showed good levels of invariance for both gender and whether or not individuals belonged to the LGBTQ+ community. In conclusion, these results show that the Anti-LGBTQ+ Attitudes Scale is a valid and reliable tool for measuring anti-LGBTQ+ prejudices in the Spanish context. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)