Gender and Generational Differences in the Internalized Homophobia Questionnaire: An Alignment IRT Analysis

Internalized homophobia (IH) refers to negative attitudes and stereotypes that a lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) person may hold regarding their own sexual identity. Recent sociocultural changes in attitudes and policies affecting LGB people generally reflect broader acceptance of sexual minorities, and may influence the manner in which LGB people experience IH. These experiences should be reflected in the measurement properties of instruments designed to assess IH. This study utilized data from three different samples (N = 3,522) of LGB individuals residing in the United States to examine the invariance of a common self-report IH measure by gender identity (Female, Male) and age cohort (Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials). Multigroup item response theory–differential item functioning analysis using the alignment method revealed that 6 of the 9 Internalized Homophobia Scale items exhibited differential functioning across gender and generation. Latent scores based on the invariant items suggested that Male and Female Boomers exhibited the lowest level of latent IH, relative to the other cohorts.