Homophobia Scale (Dutch Version) (Hooghe, 2008)

• Populations: Belgian adolescent population
• Age ranges: (M = 18)
• Languages: Dutch, French, English

Items

1. Gay people make me nervous

2. I feel that you cannot trust a person who is homosexual

3. I avoid contact with homosexual individuals

4. Homosexuality is acceptable to me (recoded)

5. Marriage between homosexual individuals is acceptable
(recoded)

6. It does not matter to me whether my friends are gay or straight
(recoded)

7. Organizations that promote rights of gay people are necessary
(recoded)

Scoring

The scale proved to be one-dimensional both for boys (Cronbach’s a: .90) and for girls (Cronbach’s a: .88). This level of internal consistency is remarkable for a balanced attitudinal scale, with three positive and four negative item formulations. Therefore, we can conclude that this shortened Homophobia scale offers a valid operationalization of the attitudinal component of homophobia in a mass survey (Table 1). The scale (range: 0 100) resulted in an average score of 37.89

Citations

Hooghe, M. (2011). The Impact of Gendered Friendship Patterns on the Prevalence of Homophobia Among Belgian Late Adolescents. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40(3), 543–550. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-010-9635-y