Measurement of Attitudes Toward Bisexual Men and Women Among South African University Students: The Validation of an Instrument

Abstract

Research was conducted investigating university students' prejudicial attitudes toward bisexual men and women in South Africa. The combined male and female Attitudes Regarding Bisexuality Scale (ARBS) showed unacceptable internal consistency reliabilities, especially for the Black-African participants. An expert focus group was convened in order to elaborate on and clarify the low reliability coefficients. The ARBS was then adapted for the South African population and resulted in two separate instruments designed to measure attitudes regarding bisexual men and bisexual women separately. Five hundred eighty seven university students completed these scales. The results indicated that the attitudes of heterosexual, homosexual, and asexual students toward bisexual men and women are more negative than the attitudes of bisexual students.

Modes of (in)tolerance: South African Muslims and same-sex relationships

“…Contemporary studies have also begun to explore Muslim lesbian and gay experiences of community attitudes in other countries (Minwalla et al 2005;Jaspal and Cinnirrella 2010) and locally (Butler et al 2003). South African literature on attitudes towards same-sex practices is growing (Arndt and De Bruin 2011), but none has focused specifically on Muslim communities. The largest sample, provided by the South African Social Attitudes Survey (Roberts and Reddy 2008), found extremely high levels of intolerance 1 amongst the general population, with 'marginally more entrenched negative views' amongst Muslims and members of the Zion Christian Church.…”

Development and reliability of metrics to characterize types and sources of stigma among men who have sex with men and female sex workers in Togo and Burkina Faso

“…However, there are several gaps in the research literature on measuring stigma specifically among key populations. This is especially the case across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) [23–28]. Previous studies have often focused on investigating stigma from others’ perspectives rather than from MSM and FSW themselves [29, 30].…”

Contact with bisexual individuals reduces binegativity among heterosexuals and lesbian women and gay men

“…Heterosexuals report predominately negative attitudes toward bisexuals (Arndt & Bruin, ; Eliason, ; Eliason, ; Herek, ; Mohr & Rochlen, ; Mulick & Wright, ), and research indicates that binegativity is more prevalent than homonegativity (Eliason, ). Attitudes toward bisexuals vary based on the gender of the rater (heterosexual individual reporting his/her attitudes) and the target (bisexual men or women).…”

“…In light of the literature showing the detrimental consequences of binegativity, that binegativity is dual‐sourced, and the potential effectiveness of intergroup contact on reducing prejudice, the current study sought to examine quantity and quality of contact with bisexuals among heterosexual and lesbian and gay communities. Given that the little research conducted on binegativity has been done with predominately heterosexual undergraduate students, we recruited both a general heterosexual community sample and a heterosexual undergraduate student sample to develop a fuller understanding of the impact of contact with bisexuals on binegativity among both the broader heterosexual community and heterosexual undergraduate students (Arndt & Bruin, ; Eliason, ; Eliason, ; Mohr & Rochlen, ; Morrison et al, ; Mulick & Wright, ; Yost & Thomas, ). As research indicates that attitudes toward bisexuals vary based on the gender of the rater and the gender of the bisexual target, we examine attitudes toward bisexual men and bisexual women separately.…”