A comparison of African American and White college students' affective and attitudinal reactions to lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals: an exploratory study

Journal of Sex Research, Nov, 2005 by Charles Negy, Russell Eisenman

Index of Homophobia. All partcipants completed the Index of Homophobia (IHP; Hudson & Ricketts, 1980). This is a 25-item scale assessing one's affective response to gay and lesbian people. Participants respond to items using a 5-point Likert scale. Scores are derived by dividing the total scores on the items by 25, therefore ranging from 1 to 5, with higher scores reflecting higher levels of homophobia. The IHP is the most widely used measure of homophobia (O'Donahue & Caselles, 1993). Based on our sample of African American and White participants, the IHP obtained Cronbach's alphas of .95 and .93, respectively.

Heterosexual Attitudes Toward Homosexuality. All participants completed the Heterosexual Attitudes Toward Homosexuality questionnaire (HATH; Larsen, Reed, & Hoffman, 1980). This is a 20-item scale assessing attitudes and beliefs in response to gay and lesbian people. Participants respond to items using a 5-point Likert scale. Scores are derived by dividing the total scores on the items by 20, therefore ranging from 1 to 4, with higher scores reflecting higher levels of homonegativity. Based on our sample of African American and White participants, the HATH obtained Cronbach's alphas of .94 and .95, respectively.

African American Acculturation Scale--Revised. In addition to the other questionnaires, African American participants completed the African American Acculturation Scale--Revised (AAAS-R; Kloniff & Landrine, 2000). The AAAS-R is a 47-item questionnaire designed to assess the degree to which African American respondents have been socialized or immersed into a traditional African American culture. The AAAS-R is scored by averaging subscale scores, and total scores can range from 1 to 7, with higher scores reflecting more enculturation toward African American culture.

The original AAAS contained 74 items and measured 8 theoretically-derived subscales. The AAAS-R was developed with the goal of reducing the number of items, eliminating items perceived to be offensive to some respondents, and making the instrument empirically derived (based on factor analysis) rather than theoretically derived. Based on factor analysis, the AAAS-R appears to measure eight distinct constructs, thus constituting 8 subscales. They are (1) Religious Beliefs and Practices; (2) Preference for Things African American; (3) Interracial Attitudes; (4) Family Practices; (5) Health Beliefs and Practices; (6) Cultural Superstitions; (7) Segregation; and (8) Family Values. The AAAS-R total score has been found to correlate .97 with the original AAAS and to have good reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .93); the 8 AAAS-R subscales have been found to have Cronbach's alphas ranging from .67 to .89. Based on our sample of African American participants, the AAAS-R (total score) obtained a Cronbach alpha of .82. Cronbach alphas for individual subscales were marginal to good, ranging from .52 (Family Values) to .84 (Interracial Attitudes), with an average alpha of .64.

RESULTS

Table 1 shows the means and standard deviations of the study variables by ethnicity and gender. To determine if African Americans and Whites differed on demographic variables, we performed a MANOVA with ethnicity serving as the independent variable, and age, class standing, SES, frequency of church attendance, religious commitment, and socially desirable responding (BIDR) as dependent variables. Ethnicity was associated significantly with an effect (using Wilks' Lambda, F [6, 210] = 6.50, p = .000; [eta.sup.2] = .157). Subsequent univariate analyses clarified the MANOVA results and indicated that, relative to Whites, African Americans attended church more frequently (F [1, 215] = 15.68, p = .000; [eta.sup.2] = .068), were more committed to their religion (F [1, 215] = 27.13, p = .000; [eta.sup.2] = .112), and had significantly lower SES (F [1, 215] = 4.26, p < .05; [eta.sup.2] = .019).