Abstract
The present study describes the development and evaluation of the Ally Identity Measure (AIM), a new instrument to assess the skills to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) persons, knowledge of the LGBT experience, awareness of LGBT oppression, and engagement in action among heterosexual allies to the LGBT community. Items were constructed based on prior qualitative and theoretical literature, revised by experts, and submitted to psychometric evaluation. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with data from 269 participants yielded 3 factors: (a) knowledge and skills, (b) openness and support, and (c) oppression awareness. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with a separate sample of 240 participants confirmed the stability of this 3-factor structure. Data with a third sample of 221 participants offered evidence of acceptable reliability (i.e., Cronbach’s alphas of .76 to .88). In an effort to assess convergent and discriminant validity, participants completed the AIM along with a number of other measures assessing personality factors, impression management, LGBT attitudes, and engagement in collective action. The AIM full-scale and subscales demonstrated good convergent (i.e., correlated positively with openness, r .27 to .39; affirming attitudes, r .45 to .68; and collective action, r .29 to .65; correlated negatively with social dominance, r .27 to .51 and right wing authoritarianism, r .18 to .45) and discriminant validity (impression management, r .00 to .07). The final 19-item version yielded 2-week test–retest reliability coefficients of .43–.82 in a sample of 54 individuals. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Published Version
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