Psychometric Assessment of a Homophobia Management Scale Among Cisgender Sexual Minority Men in Midlife and Older Adulthood

• Published in: Psychology of sexual orientation and gender diversity 2024-06, Vol.11 (2), p.316-327
• Main Authors: Meanley, Steven, Brennan-Ing, Mark, Cook, Judith A., Brown, Andre L., Haberlen, Sabina A., Palella, Frank J., Shoptaw, Steven J., Ware, Deanna, Egan, James E., Friedman, Mackey R., Plankey, Michael W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aging; Cisgender; Construct Validity; Convergent Validity; Coping Behavior; Homosexuality (Attitudes Toward); Human; Internal Consistency; Male; Male Homosexuality; Middle Adulthood; Older Adulthood; Resilience (Psychological); Sexual Minority Groups; Stigma; Test Construction; Test Validity
• ISSN: 2329-0382; 2329-0390
• DOI: 10.1037/sgd0000600

Interpersonal management of homophobic stigma (e.g., selectively constructing one's social network; confronting stigma) is an understudied area of resilience among sexual minority people. Among a sample of cisgender sexual minority men (SMM; N = 798) in midlife and older adulthood, we assessed the psychometric properties and characterized the sociodemographic differences of our newly developed, theory-informed homophobia management scale. Data come from the Healthy Aging substudy of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, which is a prospective longitudinal study implemented to evaluate the natural trajectories of HIV risk and treatment among sexual minority men. Guided by the proactive coping processes model, the Healthy Aging team proposed eight items to measure homophobia management, which were included at four waves of survey data collection completed at semiannual study visits. Using factor analyses and linear regressions, we assessed our scale's construct validity, convergent validity, and internal consistency, and characterized scores by age, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and HIV status. Factor analyses yielded a six-item scale with adequate construct validity and acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .69). Our final scale exhibited convergent validity given its statistically significant inverse association with internalized homophobia and positive association with psychological connections to the gay community. Bivariate differences in homophobia management emerged by age, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation but were not statistically significant in multivariable analyses. Our study provides a validated, unidimensional scale to assess homophobia management among SMM in midlife and older adulthood. We provide recommendations to improve the implementation of our scale in future surveillance. Public Significance StatementThe present study advocates for assessments of homophobia management (i.e., coping behaviors to minimize exposure or consequences of homophobia) to inform resilience among sexual minority people in midlife and older adulthood. Upon psychometric testing with a large community cohort of midlife and older adult cisgender sexual minority men, the study's findings offer a unique and acceptable instrument to measure sexual minority people's capacity to enact homophobia management when faced with instances of homophobic stigma.