Attitudes towards homosexuality and trans people in physical education students in Chile

Abstract

Introduction: Homophobia is understood as the feeling of rejection or fear towards a homosexual person. Discrimination and disapproval of people referred to as transgender or transgender is known as transphobia. Both attitudes are very present in Physical Education, so the objective of this research is to validate two scales of negative attitudes towards homosexuality and trans people in students of Physical Education of Chile and describe their attitudes. Method: the homophobia scale EHF-10 and the scale of negative attitudes towards trans people were applied to 255 students of Physical Education Pedagogy from three universities in Chile. Results: The two instruments have adequate levels of validity and reliability. The statements: I would be ashamed to have a gay brother or lesbian sister and Trans people should not be able to teach in schools have the highest percentage of responses totally disagreeing and disagreeing with more than 90%. The results of the homophobia scale EHF-10 present no significative differences between men and women and in the scale of negative attitudes towards trans people only present differences in one of its items. Conclusion: Both scales are valid and reliable to be applied to students of Physical Education. Low levels of homophobia and transphobia were observed in the sample.