The Attitudes Toward Transgender Men and Women (ATTMW) Scale
Originally published in my article “Attitudes Toward Transgender Men and Women: Development and Validation of a New Measure” in Frontiers in Psychology (2018), the ATTMW is a 24-item scale used to measure prejudice against transgender people. Specifically, it measures attitudes toward transgender men and toward transgender women in two distinct, non-identical 12-item subscales, such that attitudes toward both identities can be measured either separately in two parts or together in the aggregate. The studies in which the ATTMW was developed confirmed the single-factor structures of both subscales, as well as demonstrated the convergent, discriminant, predictive, and concurrent validities of the measure. The scale was also shown to have consistently high reliability (α = 0.94 − 0.99, ωh = 0.84 − 0.93).
Importantly, the scale was developed in a distinctly American context and may not be applicable across other cultural contexts without additional validation. (For validations of the scale in the context of Portugal, see Guimarães 2021; Spain, see López-Sáez et al. 2023; and Sweden, see Durgé and Gunnarsson 2021.) Moreover, it is crucial to note that the scale is useful for measuring attitudes toward transgender men and toward transgender women, but is not suitable for measuring attitudes toward people with other transgender identities, such as nonbinary people. Because the ATTM and ATTW subscales are non-identical, they are also not suited to directly comparing individuals' attitudes toward transgender men and transgender women.
Please note, the scale is entirely free to use for any researcher, so long as the final report appropriately cites the scale's origin (i.e., the 2018 Frontiers in Psychology article). If you are interested in adapting or validating the scale for another purpose or in another cultural context, or in generating a short form of the scale, please contact me. (For an existing short form of the scale, see Lovell 2020.)
How to use the scale
The ATTMW (or each subscale, depending on your use for the measure) is scored by averaging responses to each item. Response options range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) and are scored such that higher scores indicate greater anti-transgender prejudice, while lower scores indicate less prejudice.
The italicized language below should always precede the items of each subscale. In the list of scale items, (R) indicates that the item is reverse-scored, while an asterisk (*) indicates that the item is unique to that subscale. These indicators should be removed from the version of the scale displayed to respondents.
The Attitudes Toward Transgender Men (ATTM) subscale
The following statements concern transgender men. The term “transgender man” is used to describe people who were identified as female at the time of their birth but who currently live their daily lives as men. Be sure to read the prompts carefully and to answer honestly.
Please rate your agreement with the following statements on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).
Transgender men will never really be men.
Transgender men are not really men.
Transgender men are only able to look like men, but not be men.
Transgender men are unable to accept who they really are.
Transgender men are trying to be someone they’re not.
Transgender men seem absolutely normal to me. (R)*
Transgender men are denying their DNA.
Transgender men cannot just “identify” as men.
Transgender men are misguided.*
Transgender men are unnatural.
Transgender men don’t really understand what it means to be a man.
Transgender men are emotionally unstable.*
The Attitudes Toward Transgender Women (ATTW) subscale
The following statements concern transgender women. The term “transgender woman” is used to describe people who were identified as male at the time of their birth but who currently live their daily lives as women. Be sure to read the prompts carefully and to answer honestly.
Please rate your agreement with the following statements on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).
Transgender women will never really be women.
Transgender women are only able to look like women, but not be women.
Transgender women are not really women.
Transgender women are trying to be someone they’re not.
Transgender women are unnatural.
Transgender women don’t really understand what it means to be a woman.
Transgender women cannot just “identify” as women.
Transgender women are unable to accept who they really are.
Transgender women only think they are women.*
Transgender women are defying nature.*
Transgender women are denying their DNA.
There is something unique about being a woman that transgender women can never experience.*