Estudo da validação das escalas de crenças sobre a natureza da homossexualidade e de preconceito contra homossexuais

Abstract

The goal of this study was to validate two measures of prejudice against homosexuals as well as people's beliefs on the nature and origins of homosexuality. On assessing prejudice, we considered both the attitudinal and the emotional expressions of prejudice. The attitudinal dimension was measured as rejection of intimacy, while the emotional dimension used positive and negative emotions regarding homosexuals. Participants were 482 Portuguese students of different universities in the Lisbon area. Several confirmatory factorial analyses were performed in order to check the scales structure for this Portuguese population. Results mostly replicated the original structure of the two instruments. Specifically, they have shown that beliefs on the nature of homosexuality were organized in five inter-correlated belief factors: religious, ethical-moral, psychological, biological and socio-psychological beliefs. Regarding the scale of prejudice against homosexuals, results showed a factorial structure with three inter-correlated factors: positive emotions, negative emotions and rejection of intimacy. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]