Validation of the Modern Homophobia Scale in a sample-of adolescents

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 indexes. Reliability -alpha over .80- and external validity -the gay and lesbians form were significant correlated with transphobia and sexism. Finally, we observed that the boys expressed significantly more homophobic attitudes toward gay men and toward lesbians than girls does. Therefore, this scale is a useful and necessary to detect subtle homophobic attitudes toward gays and lesbians.