Re-Visiting Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI): Construct Validity of Benevolent Sexism and Measurement Invariance of ASI

Abstract

The ambivalent sexism theory states that sexism comprises hostile and benevolent beliefs and that benevolent sexism is a second-order factor consisting of protective paternalism, complementary gender differentiation and heterosexual intimacy. The subdimensions of benevolent sexism toward women have recently piqued people's interest. The Turkish version of the ambivalent sexism inventory's (ASI's) construct validity should be reexamined in light of this apparent interest in contemporary studies. Accordingly, in the current study, the aim is to test the preferred structural model in which protective sexism was defined as a second-order factor consisting of protective patriarchy, complementary differentiation between genders and heterosexual intimacy. Moreover, measurement invariance analysis will be used to test the stability of the scale's structure in different samples. The data of 1803 participants from different studies conducted between 2009 and 2019 (1194 women and 593 men, 16 unidentified) were merged. Findings of the confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the four-factor solution (i.e. hostile sexism and three subfactors of benevolence) fitted the data better than the other models (i.e. one-factor and two-factor models, and the preferred structural model). Explanatory factor analysis via exploratory structural equation modeling revealed a two-factor solution composed of benevolence and hostility, but the findings also underlined two psychometrically weak items. Finally, measurement invariance analyses demonstrated full invariance between private and public university samples, and an invariance between women and men samples except for sample means. Only the means of the samples differed in the women-men comparison, but in a theoretically predicted way, and men had higher scores in all subscales except for complementary gender differentiation. In sum, our findings provided significant support for the construct validity and measurement invariance of ASI while raising questions about the theoretical construct measured and the items needed to be revised.