Development and Validation of the Awareness of Privilege and Oppression Scale–2

• Main Authors: Michael James McClellan, Lori Patricia Montross-Thomas, Pamela Remer, Yoshie Nakai, Addison D. Monroe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2019-05-01
• Series: SAGE Open
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019853906

The two studies presented describe the revision process that led to the development of the Awareness of Privilege and Oppression Scale–2 (APOS-2) and efforts to evaluate the new measure’s reliability and construct validity. In Study 1, a 26-item measure was developed from data gathered from a sample of 484 undergraduate students. An exploratory factor analysis suggested a four-factor solution made up of awareness of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and classism was appropriate. In Study 2, confirmatory factor analysis suggested the proposed hierarchical four-factor solution was the best available fit of the data using a second sample of 520 undergraduate students. The observed Cronbach alpha reliability estimates for the final 26-item total score and subscale scores in the two presented studies were as follows: Total score (.89, .88), Awareness of Heterosexism (.82, .82), Awareness of Sexism (.76, .76), Awareness of Classism (.81, .82), and Awareness of Racism (.84, .80).