Date of Award

2011-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Psychology

Advisor(s)

John S. Wiebe

Second Advisor

Osvaldo F. Morera

Abstract

Lesbians and gay men experience psychological distress due to sexual prejudice. Variables that predict negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbians are masculinity, religious background, conservative political affiliation, lack of contact with gay men and lesbians, age, and the belief that homosexuality is a choice. However, one important variable that has demonstrated inconsistent results is the sex of the person holding the attitude. Many studies have examined and proposed reasons why there are sex differences related to attitudes toward gay men and lesbians, but none has taken into account whether attitude scales measure the same construct equally between males and females. This study included 453 female and 333 male heterosexual college students from a university on the Texas/Mexico border who completed the Modern Homonegativity Scale (MHS), assessing their attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. The measurement invariance of the MHS was examined among groups of heterosexual men and heterosexual women. Findings indicate that the MHS demonstrated full invariance of factor loadings and partial invariance among latent intercepts across all group comparisons. Moreover, heterosexual men compared to heterosexual women held more negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbians at the latent mean level. There were no differences in heterosexual males' attitudes toward gay men and lesbians, and no differences in heterosexual females' attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. This study comprises a partial cross-cultural replication of existing work.

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

71 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Daniel Hugo Romero

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Included in

Psychology Commons

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