Open AccessNegative Attitudes Toward Same-Sex Behavior Inventory: An internalized homonegativity measure for research with bisexual, gay, and other non–gay-identified men who have sex with men.
Author(s) -
Nadav Antebi-Gruszka,
Eric W. Schrimshaw
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
psychology of sexual orientation and gender diversity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.98
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 2329-0390
pISSN - 2329-0382
DOI - 10.1037/sgd0000292
Subject(s) - psychology , lesbian , homosexuality , minority stress , sexual identity , construct validity , social psychology , sexual minority , clinical psychology , men who have sex with men , construct (python library) , sexual orientation , developmental psychology , psychometrics , human sexuality , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , gender studies , medicine , syphilis , family medicine , sociology , computer science , psychoanalysis , programming language
Substantial evidence exists about the negative role of internalized homonegativity on the health and well-being of lesbian women and gay men. However, existing measures of internalized homonegativity assume a gay or lesbian sexual identity ("I wish I wasn't gay") and therefore may be inappropriate for non-gay identified individuals, including bisexual people. Therefore, we developed and tested the psychometric properties of the Negative Attitudes Towards Same-Sex Behavior Inventory (NATSBI) which was designed to assess one's negative attitudes towards their same-sex behavior, regardless of their self-identification. Using data from an ethnically-diverse sample of 203 non-gay identified behaviorally-bisexual men, we examined the factor structure, construct validity, and reliability of the NATSBI. A factor analysis of the NATSBI yielded three subscales: (1) personal homonegativity, (2) disclosure discomfort, and (3) privacy preference, with very good internal consistency reliability estimates for both subscales (α = .90, α = .89, and α = .84, respectively). The reliability was also strong within each of various demographic subgroups within the sample (e.g., race/ethnicity, age, sexual identity). The correlations of the NATSBI with various constructs (e.g., self-esteem, depression, emotional support) provided evidence of the concurrent (i.e., construct) validity of the NATSBI. These findings on the reliability and validity of the NATSBI suggest that it is possible to assess internalized homonegativity based on sexual behavior rather than assuming specific sexual identity labels. As such, we propose the NATSBI for use in studies that focus on bisexual and other non-gay-identified MSM, as well as studies that anticipate including non-gay-identified MSM.