Spanish Adaptation and Validation of the Short Internalized Homonegativity Scale (SIHS)

Abstract

Internalized homophobia has been related to mental health problems and sexual risk behaviors among nonheterosexual people. This article validates the Spanish adaptation of the Short Internalized Homonegativity Scale (SIHS). For this purpose, 347 men and 183 women completed the instrument. Exploratory factorial analysis showed three factors: public identification as homosexual (PIH), sexual comfort with homosexual people (SEXC), and social comfort with homosexual people (SOCC). These factors explained 57.96% of total variance. In addition, confirmatory factorial analysis supported this structure and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was.80 for the full scale. The three subscales ranged from.70 to.79. Convergent validity showed a positive correlation between the SIHS and depressive symptoms, and negative correlation with condom use, self-esteem, and having sex after alcohol consumption. In conclusion, the SIHS could be an accurate instrument to evaluate internalized homophobia among the Spanish population.