About the subtle and the manifest in the ATLG scale

Abstract

The aims of this paper were to calculate internal consistency of the Attitude toward Lesbian and Gay Men (ATLG) scale, to determine its factor structure, and to verify the equivalence of the factor structure pattern by gender. An incidental sample of 452 undergraduate students was collected. Internal consistency of its 20 items was high (alpha = .94). It was defined a solution of three factors nested to one general factor: one factor related to an attitude of rejection toward lesbians (ATL), another factor related to an attitude of open rejection toward gay men (ATG-Open), and a third factor related to an attitude of subtle rejection toward gay men (ATG-Subtle). The three factors had high values of internal consistency (.91, .84, and .79, respectively). This factor model showed an adequate data ft (Chi-square/df = 2.38, RMSEA = .05, GFI = .91, and AGFI = .90), and resulted valid for men and women in the multigroup contrast (Chi-square/df = 1.80, RMSEA = .04, GFI = .87, and AGFI = .83). Nevertheless, the 20-item ATLG scale could be reduced to the 5 items composing the ATG-Subtle factor owing to the extremely strong weights that the general factor had on its three nested factors and the low risk of underestimation of the actual attitudinal rejection that this reduction conveys. It is recommended the use of the ATLG scale with its 20 items in Mexico, and its study in other Spanish-speaking countries.