Stereotypes Scale Regarding Adopted Children: Elaboration and Psychometric Evidence

This research aimed to develop an instrument to measure stereotypes about adopted children, gathering evidence of its factorial validity and internal consistency. For this purpose, two studies were carried out with the general population of João Pessoa, in the Brazilian state of Paraíba. The first study had 208 participants, 52.9 % female, with a mean age of 24.6 years (sd = 7.26), who responded to the Stereotypes Scale regarding adopted children (eeca) and sociodemographic questions. An analysis of the main components indicated a suitable three-component structure, which explained 54.34 %  of the total variance, presenting satisfactory indices of internal consistency: undesirable attributes (α = 0.87), desirable attributes (α = 0.83) and negative psychological attributes (α = 0.71). The second study had the participation of 2245 people, of whom 59.2 % were male, with a mean age of 25.5 years (sd = 7.10), who also responded to the eeca and sociodemographic questions. The results confirmed the psychometric adequacy of the instrument and can be used as a three-dimensional measure to evaluate stereotypes about adopted children.

Keywords: Stereotypes, foster children, validation, scale.