Measuring ageism: Psychometric analysis of the Portuguese short form of the Fraboni Scale (FSA-SF)

Abstract

This article reports the development of a Portuguese shortened form of the Fraboni Scale of Ageism FSA (FSA-SF). The original FSA with 29 items measures the affective aspect of attitudes toward elderly to complement the cognitive component evaluated by other tools. Two studies were implemented to determine the psychometric features of the FSA-SF with 9 items. In the first study, 404 participants answered a questionnaire in Portuguese to evaluate the dimensionality of the FSA-SF via confirmatory factor analysis. In addition, the second-order factor, the reliability, and the convergent validity of the FSA-SF was assessed. Results showed 3 factors (Avoidance, Stereotypes, and Discrimination) with a second order factor (Ageism). The reliability and convergent validity of the FSA-SF were adequate. In the second study, 246 participants also answered a questionnaire in Portuguese to evaluate the replicability of the 3-factor structure and the second-order factor. In addition, the reliability, convergent, and incremental validity of the FSA-SF were examined. Good construct validity for the first and second order models was replicated via confirmatory factor analyses. Findings showed that the Portuguese FSA-SF had satisfactory reliability, convergent, and incremental validity. Overall, this article determines that the Portuguese shortened FSA-SF is an adequate tool to assess ageism.