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Development and Validation of the Transgender Attitudes and Beliefs Scale

Archives of Sexual Behavior volume 46, pages 1503–1515 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

In recent years, issues surrounding transgender have garnered media and legal attention, contributing to rapidly shifting views on gender in the U.S. Yet, there is a paucity of data-driven studies on the public’s views of transgender identity. This study reports the development and validation of the Transgender Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (TABS). After constructing an initial 96-item pool from consulting experts and existing scales, Phase 1 of the study was launched, involving an exploratory factor analysis of 48 items. The initial factor analysis with 295 participants revealed three factors across 33 items—16 items on interpersonal comfort, 11 on sex/gender beliefs, and 6 on human value. The internal consistency of each factor was high—α = .97 for Factor 1, α = .95 for Factor 2, and α = .94 for Factor 3. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted in the second phase with an independent sample consisting of 238 participants. The Attitudes Toward Transgender Individual Scale and the Genderism and Transphobia Scale were also included to test for convergent validity, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the short form of the Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale were utilized to test discriminant validity. Both of the data collection phases employed MTurk, a form of online sampling with increased diversity compared to college student samples and more generalizability to the general U.S. population. TABS represents an addition to the literature in its ability to capture a more nuanced conceptualization of transgender attitude not found in previous scales.

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Fig. 1

Notes

  1. The initial pool of 96 items/questions is available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the assistance of Emmanuel Segui de Carreras in the Department of Psychology and Department of Counseling, Leadership and Special Education at Missouri State University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Research, The University of Memphis, 100 Ball Hall, Memphis, TN, 38152, USA

    Yasuko Kanamori

  2. Department of Counseling, Leadership, and Special Education, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA

    Yasuko Kanamori, Jeffrey H. D. Cornelius-White & Joseph Hulgus

  3. Department of Psychology, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, CA, USA

    Teresa K. Pegors

  4. Research, Statistical Training, Analysis, and Technical Support, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA

    Todd Daniel

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  1. Yasuko Kanamori
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  2. Jeffrey H. D. Cornelius-White
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  3. Teresa K. Pegors
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  4. Todd Daniel
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Correspondence to Yasuko Kanamori.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Kanamori, Y., Cornelius-White, J.H.D., Pegors, T.K. et al. Development and Validation of the Transgender Attitudes and Beliefs Scale. Arch Sex Behav 46, 1503–1515 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0840-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0840-1

Keywords

  • Transgender
  • Attitudes
  • Transgender Attitudes and Beliefs Scale
  • Religion
  • Christianity