Validación de la Escala Moderna de Homofobia en una muestra de adolescentes.

Abstract

Title: Validation of the Modern Homophobia Scale in a sample of adoles- cents. Abstract: The objective of this paper is both, to analyse the reliability and validity of the Spanish version of the Modern Homophobia Scale, and to assess the homophobia level of adolescents as well as the association between homophobia and ambivalent sexism. The Modern Homophobia Scale assesses the attitudes toward gay men (MHS-G) and lesbians (MHS-L). The sample was made of 800 Spanish students of Secondary Education (50.7% female and 49.3% male) with ages ranging from 15 to 19 years (mean age = 15.19; SD: .92). Results showed a coherent factorial structure with adequate fit in- dexes. Reliability -alpha over .80- and external validity -the gay and lesbi- ans form were significant correlated with transphobia and sexism. Finally, we observed that the boys expressed significantly more homophobic atti- tudes toward gay men and toward lesbians than girls does. Therefore, this scale is a useful and necessary to detect subtle homophobic attitudes to- ward gays and lesbians. Key-words: Homophobia; validation; adolescents; modern homophobia scale; gay; lesbian.