"not a legitimate sexual orientation": Attitudes toward bisexual men and women as a risk factor for HIV/AIDS

INTRODUCTION: Findings from previous sociological studies suggest that bisexual men and women face prejudice, stigma, and discrimination from both heterosexual and homosexual individuals. While established relationships between minority stress and HIV/STI risk behavior, particularly among individuals who face multiple layers of stigma, there is a lack of valid and reliable measures for assessing attitudes toward bisexual men and women. As yet, valid and reliable scales have not been developed to wholistically assess attitudes toward bisexual individuals (including potential relationships with individual characteristics such as age, gender, sexual orientation, etc.). METHODS: The study was conducted in two distinct phases of item elcitation and scale development. Initially, 300 adult university students provided words that come to mind in relation to bisexual men and women. Based on this, researchers developed a 33-item scale which was administered to a purposeful online sample of 1500 adults from a wide range of social networking websites. RESULTS: Overall, both heterosexual- and gay-identified participants were generally negative in terms of their attitudes toward bisexual men and women. In addition to determining validity and reliability, factoral analyses were used to determine the most salient items to be included in brief version of the scale, to be tested in a large probability sample of adults in a subsequent study. DISCUSSION: This study yields yields valuable data to be used for informing social awareness and intervention efforts aimed toward decreasing negative attitudes toward bisexual men and women in both heterosexual and homosexual communities.