The purpose of this instrumental research was to expand the Internalized Homonegativity Scale to assess a new factor, the fear of being identified as a non-heterosexual person, and to validate the new instrument. A questionnaire was applied to an incidental sample of 200 medical students from a private university in Monterrey, Mexico. This questionnaire was composed of four items about sociodemographic information, one is about self-defined sexual orientation, 16-item Internalized Homonegativity Scale (plus five items to assess the new factor), Attitude Towards Lesbians and Gay Men Scale, and Kinsey's Sexual Orientation Scale. The overall internal consistency was excellent. Upon removing two items, a four-factor model was reproduced through exploratory factor analysis; the goodness of fit was good. The four factors showed evidence of internal consistency and discriminant validity. The IHN-21 total score followed a normal distribution and its mean was higher among men than among women. IHN-21 had negative correlation with age and sexual orientation, and positive correlation with attitude of rejection towards gay men and lesbians. It is concluded that the scale shows internal consistency and reliability and construct validity.

RESUMENEste artículo tiene como objetivos estudiar la consistencia interna, estructura factorial, distribución, validez convergente y de constructo de la Escala de Homofobia (HF) de Klamen, Grossman y Kopacz (1999) y estimar el porcentaje de casos de homofobia externalizada. Las Escalas HF, de Actitud hacia Lesbianas y Gais (ATLG) y Homonegatividad Internalizada (HIN-16) fueron aplicadas a una muestra no probabilística de 231 estudiantes mexicanos de ciencias de la salud (121 mujeres y 103 hombres). La Escala de Homofobia reducida a 8 ítems (HF-8) tuvo una estructura unidimensional, consistencia interna alta, validez convergente (correlación alta con rechazo abierto hacia la homosexualidad y moderada con rechazo sutil) y validez de constructo (medias de los participantes no heterosexuales y con amigos gais o con VIH significativamente menores que las de los participantes heterosexuales y sin amistades gais o con VIH). La distribución siguió a una curva normal. El porcentaje de casos de homofobia externalizada fue menor que 1. Se concluye que la Escala HF-8 es confiable y válida y el nivel de homofobia externalizada es bajo. Se sugiere usar la Escala HF-8 para evaluar homofobia externalizada en estudiantes mexicanos de ciencias de la salud y estudiar sus propiedades psicométricas en otras poblaciones. ABSTRACTThe aims of this paper are to study the internal consistency, factor structure, distribution, convergence validy, and construct validity of the Klamen, Grossman and Kopacz (1999) Homophobia (HF) Scale, and to estimate the percentage of cases of externalized homophobia. The HF Scale, the Attitude Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Scale, and the Internalized Homonegativity Scale were applied to a non-probability sample of 231 Mexican health sciences students (121 women and 103 men). The Homophobia Scale reduced to 8 items (HF-8) had unidimensional structure, high internal consistency, convergent validity (high correlation with open rejection of homosexuality and moderate correlation with subtle rejection of homosexuality), and construct validity (the means of the non-heterosexual and those having gay or HIV-infected friends were significantly lower than the means of heterosexual persons and participants not having gay or HIV-infected friends). HF-8 total score distribution followed a normal curve. The percentage of cases of externalized homophobia was lower than 1. It is therefore concluded that HF-8 Scale is a reliable and valid instrument, and that the level of externalized homophobia is low. Use of the HF-8 Scale is suggested for the assessment of externalized homophobia in Mexican health sciences students, and further study is recommended to study its psychometric properties in other populations.

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