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      Italian Validation of Homophobia Scale (HS)

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          Abstract

          Introduction

          The Homophobia Scale (HS) is a valid tool to assess homophobia. This test is self-reporting, composed of 25 items, which assesses a total score and three factors linked to homophobia: behavior/negative affect, affect/behavioral aggression, and negative cognition.

          Aim

          The aim of this study was to validate the HS in the Italian context.

          Methods

          An Italian translation of the HS was carried out by two bilingual people, after which an English native translated the test back into the English language. A psychologist and sexologist checked the translated items from a clinical point of view. We recruited 100 subjects aged18–65 for the Italian validation of the HS. The Pearson coefficient and Cronbach's α coefficient were performed to test the test–retest reliability and internal consistency.

          Main Outcome Measures

          A sociodemographic questionnaire including the main information as age, geographic distribution, partnership status, education, religious orientation, and sex orientation was administrated together with the translated version of HS.

          Results

          The analysis of the internal consistency showed an overall Cronbach's α coefficient of 0.92. In the four domains, the Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.90 in behavior/negative affect, 0.94 in affect/behavioral aggression, and 0.92 in negative cognition, whereas in the total score was 0.86. The test–retest reliability showed the following results: the HS total score was r = 0.93 ( P < 0.0001), behavior/negative affect was r = 0.79 ( P < 0.0001), affect/behavioral aggression was r = 0.81 ( P < 0.0001), and negative cognition was r = 0.75 ( P < 0.0001).

          Conclusions

          The Italian validation of the HS revealed the use of this self-report test to have good psychometric properties. This study offers a new tool to assess homophobia. In this regard, the HS can be introduced into the clinical praxis and into programs for the prevention of homophobic behavior.

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          Most cited references28

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          A strategy for the measurement of homophobia.

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            Correlates of negative attitudes toward gay men: sexism, male role norms, and male sexuality.

            Research has shown that heterosexual men are more negative toward gay men than women are on measures of attitudes toward homosexual behaviour and homosexual persons (Kite & Whitley, 1996). Gender differences in attitudes toward gay men's civil rights are less clear. No empirical studies, however, have investigated these findings with a scale that measures specifically these three attitudinal subcomponents. This study was a preliminary test of a scale that measured these subcomponents. In addition, this study investigated the relationship between these subcomponents and other attitudinal measures: hostile sexism, male toughness, and attitudes toward male sexuality. Results revealed that attitudes toward homosexual behaviour and homosexual persons comprised one factor: affective reactions toward gay men. Results showed that men were more negative on affective reactions than women were. No gender differences were revealed on attitudes toward civil rights. I found significant correlations between affective reactions, hostile sexism, male toughness, and male sexuality. I discuss these findings in relation to traditional gender role beliefs and make suggestions for future research.
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              Scales for measuring fear of AIDS and homophobia.

              Two scales, one for measuring attitudes toward the fear of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and one for measuring attitude toward homosexuality, were constructed using Thurstone's method of equal-appearing intervals. After construction, the scales were given to 528 students at the University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 1985 to determine their respective reliabilities. Factor analyses were also done to determine what factors underlie the attitudes measured by the two scales and to determine if fear of AIDS and homophobia are in fact simply two facets of the same attitude: fear of homosexuals. The results indicated high reliabilities of both scales and a relatively low correlation between the two scales suggesting that the scales do measure different attitudes.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Sex Med
                Sex Med
                sm2
                Sexual Medicine
                John Wiley & Sons, Ltd (Chichester, UK )
                2050-1161
                2050-1161
                September 2015
                15 April 2015
                : 3
                : 3
                : 213-218
                Affiliations
                [* ]Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila L'Aquila, Italy
                []Department of Experimental Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome Rome, Italy
                []Department of Systems Medicine, Tor Vergata University of Rome Rome, Italy
                Author notes
                Corresponding Author: Emmanuele A. Jannini, MD, Department of Systems Medicine, Tor Vergata University of Rome, Via Montpellier 1, 00131 Roma, Italy. Tel: +39-0862-433530; Fax: +39-0862-433523; E-mail: eajannini@ 123456gmail.com
                Article
                10.1002/sm2.68
                4599558
                351dd37b-d255-4b01-b534-0346ae49baa4
                © 2015 The Authors. Sexual Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Sexual Medicine.

                This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

                History
                Categories
                Original Research—Psychology

                homophobia,italy,italian validation,homophobia scale,psychometric properties

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