Abstract
Although construct measurement is critical to explanatory research and intervention efforts, rigorous measure development remains a notable challenge. For example, though the primary theoretical model for understanding health disparities among sexual minority (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual) adolescents is minority stress theory, nearly all published studies of this population rely on minority stress measures with poor psychometric properties and development procedures. In response, we developed the Sexual Minority Adolescent Stress Inventory (SMASI) with N = 346 diverse adolescents ages 14–17, using a comprehensive approach to de novo measure development designed to produce a measure with desirable psychometric properties. After exploratory factor analysis on 102 candidate items informed by a modified Delphi process, we applied item response theory techniques to the remaining 72 items. Discrimination and difficulty parameters and item characteristic curves were estimated overall, within each of 12 initially derived factors, and across demographic subgroups. Two items were removed for excessive discrimination and three were removed following reliability analysis. The measure demonstrated configural and scalar invariance for gender and age; a three-item factor was excluded for demonstrating substantial differences by sexual identity and race/ethnicity. The final 64-item measure comprised 11 subscales and demonstrated excellent overall (α = 0.98), subscale (α range 0.75–0.96), and test–retest (scale r > 0.99; subscale r range 0.89–0.99) reliabilities. Subscales represented a mix of proximal and distal stressors, including domains of internalized homonegativity, identity management, intersectionality, and negative expectancies (proximal) and social marginalization, family rejection, homonegative climate, homonegative communication, negative disclosure experiences, religion, and work domains (distal). Thus, the SMASI development process illustrates a method to incorporate information from multiple sources, including item response theory models, to guide item selection in building a psychometrically sound measure. We posit that similar methods can be used to improve construct measurement across all areas of psychological research, particularly in areas where a strong theoretical framework exists but existing measures are limited.
Highlights
Sexual minority adolescents (SMA; lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, etc.) experience well-documented behavioral health disparities compared to their heterosexual peers
minority stress theory (MST) suggests that discrimination, violence, and victimization due to a pervasive homophobic culture are the primary sources of stress and most probable driving mechanisms of mental health problems among sexual minorities (Savin-Williams, 2001; Russell, 2003; Kelleher, 2009)
In addition to being a valuable contribution to the literature on minority stress, in which measurement of the key theoretical construct still lags behind many other areas of psychology (Morrison et al, 2016), the present study provides a field guide to rigorous de novo measure development
Summary
Sexual minority adolescents (SMA; lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, etc.) experience well-documented behavioral health disparities compared to their heterosexual peers. SMA are more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide than their heterosexual counterparts (Marshal et al, 2013), with as many as 42% of SMA having considered suicide at some point in their life (D’Augelli et al, 2001) When disparities such as these emerge in adolescence, they can negatively influence a lifelong trajectory of health and well-being (Steinberg and Morris, 2001). As Meyer (2003) explains, individuals in a minority group—in this case, sexual minorities— are affected by two sets of minority-related stressors These include both distal stressors in the environment, such as prejudicial events, discrimination, and violence, and proximal stressors internal to the individual, including expectations of rejection, concealment, and internalized homophobia. At the same time, concealing one’s identity due to rejection expectations (proximal) may reduce the likelihood of victimization; research has suggested that disclosing a sexual minority identity, or “being out,” to more individuals is correlated with higher rates of violence and victimization (Chesir-Teran and Hughes, 2009; Kosciw et al, 2015)
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