Development and Validation of the ADAS Scale and Prediction of Attitudes Toward Affective-Sexual Diversity Among Spanish Secondary Students

ABSTRACT

Violence against non-heterosexual adolescents in educational contexts remains a worrying reality, but no adequate attitudes toward affective-sexual diversity (AtASD) measure exists for Spanish adolescent students. We developed a 27-item scale including cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects, which was completed by 696 secondary school students from the Madrid area. Factor analyses suggested a unidimensional model, Cronbach’s alpha indicated excellent scale scores reliability, and item calibration under the item response theory framework showed that the scale is especially informative for homophobic attitudes. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that variables traditionally related to AtASD (gender, age, religion, nationality, perceived parental/peer attitudes, direct contact with LGB people) also were so in our sample. Moreover, interest in sexuality topics and perceived center’s efforts to provide AtASD education were related to better AtASD. Our scale was reliable and valid, and it may also prove useful in efforts to detect those students with homophobic attitudes and to guide interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Affective-sexual diversity
• education
• homophobia
• LGBT
• sexual orientation

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Secondary Education Centers that made this study possible, with special regard to headmasters, school counselors, and students. We would also like to acknowledge Yolanda López de la Rica for her review of the article’s language. In addition, we would like to thank the journal reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.